B.C. flood victims left high and dry as backlog of aid requests clogs approval queue
B.C. government says Nov. 2021 floods generated quadruple the calls for help normally seen in an entire year
In November 2021, historic flooding devastated communities in the interior and Fraser Valley regions of British Columbia.
To mark the six-month anniversary, CBC held a special live broadcast in Abbotsford to share the stories of people still trying to rebuild. This story is part of our series, "Six Months Later."
Caroline Mostmertman will never forget Nov. 17, 2021.
Record-breaking rainfall flooded the city of Abbotsford's Sumas Prairie, including Mostmertman's home and her business, Ripples Winery.
"November 17 is burned into our retinas," said Mostmertman.
It's a day that many in British Columbia's Fraser Valley won't soon forget. And now, six months later, farmers, residents and the community continue to recover, inch by inch, acre by acre. Though for some, the delay in financial support has made it a challenge.
During the floods, water levels rose to six feet on Mostmertman's property. Their livelihoods were swamped. So too was the ground floor of their home. The water stayed for three weeks. When it was finally pumped out, it was replaced with mud and devastation.
But six months later, Ripples Winery has reopened its tasting room.
"After countless days of hard work, after 100 days of people coming to help us, volunteers, the visible part (which is open to the public) is now lovely," she said.
Although she admits, almost everything else — her vineyard, her crops, her home — remain a disaster.
"We don't even have a bathroom yet. But this is the area we need to get back."
The tasting room is Mostmertman and her husband's first source of income since the floods. Despite government pledges of disaster relief funding, they still haven't received a penny.
They say they applied for help months ago, but when she called recently to check on the application, she was told she was in the queue.
"That's not a disaster relief fund. That's like a, 'Yeah maybe in two years' type of fund," she said.
"It's not the immediate assistance that we need."
Expanded government assistance
The Mostmertmans aren't the only ones waiting for support. Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun says he has spoken with many farmers in his community — some of whom lost millions of dollars to the floods — that are still waiting.
"It kinda surprised me."
Agriculture Minister Lana Popham told CBC News that the province has already provided $25 million in support of those in need.
In all, the province and the federal government have pledged $228 million in government support to help farms return to production. The fund provides eligible farmers with one-time funding for uninsurable infrastructure repair, cleanup costs and return-to-production expenses.
Emergency Management B.C. says it has received more than 2,200 applications for support from people, businesses and local governments affected by last November's flooding when in an average year it receives a total of 450.
WATCH | Q&A with Agriculture Minister Lana Popham in Abbotsford:
In response, it has hired more staff to assess, approve and process payments with a total of $6.9 million in disaster financial assistance distributed so far and new applications are still being received under expanded eligibility requirements.
Standing in a destroyed berry farm earlier this week, Popham said her government is committed to supporting farmers.
"Farmers wear their hearts on their sleeves. They're in so much pain. There's this absolute resilience that's in their blood and it's remarkable."
Abbotsford prepares for the future
And while farmers work to remediate their fields, Braun says much of the same rebuilding continues to happen around the city of Abbotsford, where 300 pieces of city infrastructure were destroyed or damaged.
So far, the city has repaired 190, but plenty of work remains, he says, including 13 bridges.
One of those projects has been reinforcing the Barrowtown pump station, which, in a heroic effort, was saved by residents during the flooding.
"We were perilously close to that pump station flooding and if that had happened, we still would have water over Highway 1."
Braun said council and city staff have also been busy working to ensure that a flooding disaster like last November's, doesn't happen again.
The city has developed four options for flood mitigation on the Sumas Prairie, ranging in cost from $209 million to $1.297 billion.
Council is committed to addressing flooding issues along the prairie once and for all, he says.
'We know what has to be done. It just takes a lot of money."
The four options were opened to public feedback. Braun says city staff will now put the information together and present council with a recommended option before the end of June.
After that, he says it will vote and send it off to other levels of government, whose financial support is required to proceed.
"We have a plan. We just can't do it with property taxes."
With files from Margaret Gallagher, Anita Bathe and On the Coast