Students, staff make emotional return to Abbotsford school damaged in record floods

Tuesday was an emotional day for students and staff of Upper Sumas Elementary School, which finally reopened following the unprecedented floods that hit Abbotsford, B.C., late last year.

"As soon as I got inside of the school, I just burst into tears," Tina Lakey, an Indigenous support worker for the school district, told CBC News.

"I totally wasn't expecting that but it was really affecting the staff at the school and the students and stuff, so, yeah, it was pretty intense."

In mid-November, an atmospheric river weather system dumped record-breaking rain across southern B.C., leading to mudslides and floods that ravaged the Fraser Valley.

Upper Sumas Elementary School, which is located near the Sumas River, was inundated with around a metre of water.

Principal Abby Chan said he remembers the day the school was evacuated and he knew they wouldn't be allowed back for a while.

"I watched as the water started coming out of the exit grates on the floor where the sewers were, coming backwards, so that was pretty surreal," he said.

Following the evacuation, Chan says he tried to stay connected to each of the families of the roughly 175 students who attend the school.

"We met in parks and we met with kids, phoning them, connecting the families to make sure they were OK, because a number of our families were quite devastated," he said.

The students were split into three groups and moved to either W. A. Fraser Middle School, the Abbotsford Arts Centre or the Sumas First Nation.

"I was visiting each of the campuses for a couple of hours every day," Chan said.

The staff were able to visit the school a few weeks after the floods to assess the damage, and returned to a chaotic scene.  

"There was mud all over the lower floors, it was all brown. We could see that in some parts it hadn't drained enough yet. and I found a refrigerator that was floating by and desks overturned, papers everywhere, everything was soaked," Chan said.

He said everything had to be "started from scratch again."

Jordyn Epp, a Grade 5 student at Upper Sumas, said she didn't like having to move but she was thankful she was with her friends. She also got a taste of middle school, she says.

"One of the places I went to was Fraser Middle. Fraser is where I'm going to be going next year, so I got to see a little bit of what I'm going to be going through next," she told CBC News.

Jordyn says it's pretty exciting to be back in her regular school.

"It's more familiar, everything is where I remember it. It's like, walking away from your house and then coming back five years later, and it's the exact same," she said.

Lakey says the refurbishment has meant more opportunity and the school is working on a new room for student services and Indigenous programs for students to just come and "experience joy."

"This school has such a history, it was so important that it does get remediated and we are able to move back into it," she said.

"So, I'm just really grateful to our crew that came in here and did all this incredible work."