Fraser Valley flood cleanup begins, as latest blast of rain swells B.C. rivers

The cleanup is starting in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley as water that flowed across the border from the Nooksack River in Washington state recedes, but the flood threat remains for several B.C. rivers and has expanded to Metro Vancouver’s North Shore.

B.C. Emergency Management Minister Kelly Greene said the province’s south coast was hit by heavy rain into Monday morning, creating “increased flood and landslide risk” in the North Shore.

“The ground is saturated in many areas,” Greene said at an update of B.C.’s flood situation Monday. “The rivers are full, additional rainfall is going to increase the potential for more flooding and landslides.

“Folks should avoid riverbanks and waterways — the water is very high, and the banks may not be stable.”

Warnings of “high impact” rainfall were still in place for the Central Fraser Valley including Chilliwack, as well as Manning to the Skagit Valley, and sections of Highway 3 and the Coquihalla Highway.

But all warnings have now been lifted for Abbotsford, which was hardest hit by last week’s atmospheric river weather systems that triggered the cross-border flooding, forced evacuations and shut down major highways. Rainfall warnings were also cancelled on Monday for Vancouver Island and Metro Vancouver.

The province on Monday confirmed six poultry farms in the Fraser Valley were flooded last week.

Shawn Hall, the director of the BC Poultry Industry emergency operations centre, said they don’t have an exact number of birds lost on the six farms that were flooded, but it’s in the “tens of thousands.”

Hall said 14 poultry farms are located in the flooded areas, and farmers are grappling with two simultaneous emergencies — the flooding and an avian influenza outbreak that remains active.

“We have to be meeting avian influenza biosecurity measures while we’re responding to a flood, where farmers are resilient,” he said. “We’re going to be as strong as ever, but it is a challenging time.”

Greene said about 100 properties across B.C. remain on evacuation order while roughly 1,200 were on alert, but the city of Abbotsford later said that it had downgraded evacuation orders for 39 additional properties on the Sumas Prairie.

As of Monday afternoon, the city said 36 properties were still under evacuation orders, while 449 were under evacuation alert. It said staff had completed damage assessments on flooded homes in the evacuation area to ensure residents can return home safely.

The city said Monday that U.S. forecasts project the Nooksack River will not reach flood stage in the next few days following the latest blast of wet weather washing over southern B.C. and the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

It said that overflowing waters from the Nooksack have stopped moving across the border.

Canada Border Services Agency said operations at the Abbotsford-Huntingdon border crossing had resumed service Monday after being shut last week by the flooding.

At the Enviro-Corp Recycling facility in Abbotsford on Monday, workers swept and mopped up the muddy mess made by the floodwaters.

The facility is just steps from the U.S. border.

Verne Oystrick, 71, who has been with the company 17 years, said one of his bosses urged him to move equipment last Thursday to save it from the coming flood after they lost forklifts and tractor trailers during the last flood in 2021. He reacted with disbelief.

“I said, ‘are you kidding me? I said, there’s a big flat field over there.’ There was a little bit of water in there, maybe a foot, and then we come back at 10 to 20 minutes and it was overflowing,” he said. “It was just like a movie. You can’t believe how fast it happened.”

Oystrick said they’ve dealt with multiple flood events over the years, but 2021 was the worst of it. Those floods caused billions in damages, inundating the valley’s Sumas Prairie and devastating livestock.

Nearly 250 properties in the Sumas Prairie that had been under an evacuation order due to the current flooding are now on an alert, and the evacuation order for both the Castle Fun Park and Clarion Hotel in Abbotsford have also been downgraded.

“Crews are also out assessing culverts, bridges and roads and are working to reopen roads as soon as they are safe to drive,” the update said. “We are also pleased that Highway 1 is expected to fully reopen for eastbound traffic today.”

B.C. Agriculture Minister Lana Popham said one hog farm in the Fraser Valley remained cut off from road access Monday, and crews were trying to determine whether a feed truck could get there. She said the animals have about a day’s food supply left.

“We’re working with that farm and looking at possibly delivering food by helicopter if that’s needed, which is something that happened also in 2021,” Popham said.

Environment Canada said in a weather summary that nine B.C. communities either broke or tied record-high daily temperatures on Sunday for Dec. 14, including Lytton, which reported 15.2 degrees. Atmospheric river weather systems drag warm air and rain from the tropics, and are associated with spiking temperatures.

The River Forecast Centre said “additional run-off from snowmelt can be anticipated” from certain areas, although “much of the snow at mid-elevations was melted over the last week.”

The centre’s flood warning for the North Shore mountains says flows on the Seymour River are at once-in-50-year levels and are “still rising.”

BC Hydro said around 6:40 p.m. Monday that more than 59,000 customers across the province had been without power due to strong winds brought by the latest storm. The power utility said Hope, Abbotsford and Squamish were the most impacted areas in the Lower Mainland.

The City of Abbotsford said Monday that much of Sumas Prairies remains without electricity.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 15, 2025.

Darryl Greer and Chuck Chiang, The Canadian Press