Abbotsford mayor blasts feds for flooding ‘inaction’ as water starts receding

ABBOTSFORD — The mayor of flood-struck Abbotsford, B.C., says he is “disappointed and frustrated” with the federal government over “inaction” on cross-border flooding that has repeatedly inundated his city.

Ross Siemens said he had not been contacted by the federal government about this week’s flooding that has forced hundreds of households to evacuate, while inundating poultry barns and forcing livestock relocations.

Siemens told a news briefing on Friday that he was pleading for flood mitigation to be addressed, and authorities across the border in Washington state also needed to “wake up” and for the issue to be part of an international treaty.

Flooding can result in the Fraser Valley when the Nooksack River in Washington overflows its banks, as it did on Wednesday, sending water pouring north and potentially inundating the farmlands of the Sumas Prairie.

That happened in 2021, during floods that caused billions in damages north of the border, and again this week, although to a lesser extent.

Siemens said he wanted money for a pump station on the Sumas River to mitigate the outflows.

“That is the primary issue that we need right now, that we need to move the water through quicker,” he said.

He said that failure to address the situation put residents, food security and the economy at risk, and that “to say we are disappointed and frustrated is an understatement.”

“We don’t need empty promises from the federal government that they have our back. In fact, the federal government has not even reached out to me during this event,” he said.

Siemens said that within six months of the 2021 disaster, the city came up with a flood mitigation plan, and it needed to be implemented with federal help. But, he said, that didn’t happen.

Public Safety Canada said minister Eleanor Olszewski was in close contact with B.C. Emergency Management Minister Kelly Greene, and the federal government was “actively engaged with provincial officials should they require assistance.”

It said in a statement that Olszewski would be speaking to Siemens on Friday about his proposals.

The mechanism for sharing federal disaster-recovery funds had been modernized last year, it added, and included a specific stream that would focus on long-term mitigation.

Siemens also said that changes needed to be made to the way Nooksack outflows are split at Everson in Washington state.

But Greene told the briefing that any mitigation measures had to take into consideration “unintended consequences.”

“Any solutions need to be comprehensive for the region. There’s no one thing that will solve all the problems that we are facing here,” she said, and water diverted from one area could harm another.

David Campbell with the B.C. River Forecast Centre said floodwaters that poured across the border from the Nooksack have now started to recede.

But he said the process of draining the Sumas Prairie would take days, and more rain was on the way for the Fraser Valley.

Environment Canada said in a special weather statement on Friday that light rain was expected to intensify overnight. It said up to 40 millimetres is possible, before another system moves in Saturday night followed by a “potentially significant” push of rain on Monday and beyond.

At 1st Avenue in Abbotsford, within sight of the border crossing, floodwater had been pouring in on Thursday afternoon, but by Friday morning had receded, leaving behind clumps of mud.

Abbotsford resident Dennis Krins said the flooding had forced his family to evacuate twice this week — first from his home on 2nd Avenue on Wednesday and then again Thursday night from a hotel on Highway 1.

He said they have since been relocated to a second hotel.

He said he had been surveying the situation on Thursday night via home video cameras, but decided to return Friday to take a look in person.

“We just kept monitoring it all night,” he said, calling himself “lucky” — although water had spread to his deck, his house remained dry.

Elsewhere in Abbotsford, just north of Highway 1, Delair Park remained flooded, with water spilling onto Delair Road as police managed traffic, while fields south of the highway look like lakes.

B.C. Agriculture Minister Lana Popham told Friday’s briefing that a “couple of poultry barns” had been lost and flocks in other barns were being relocated, as was stock on some hog farms.

She said a small number of cattle had also been relocated but the dairy industry was “in pretty good shape.”

However, she said the “emotional toll” on farmers was “really tough.”

Popham said 68 farms had been ordered evacuated and 98 put on evacuation alert, while Greene said that 450 properties of all kinds across B.C. had been ordered evacuated, and 1,700 put on alert. Most are in Abbotsford.

The extent of infrastructure damage caused by a series of atmospheric river weather events that drenched both sides of the border this week was meanwhile becoming clearer, with the Transport Ministry saying Highway 3 connecting Hope to Alberta had been “severely undermined.”

DriveBC said Friday afternoon that Highway 3 was closed for about 130 kilometres between Exit 177 and Mountain Rd, with debris on the roadway and no estimated time of reopening.

An engineering assessment was underway after about 23 sites on the highway suffered damage from rockfalls, debris and culvert undermining.

Highway 1 was shut at Abbotsford and east of Highway 9, with the Sumas border crossing also closed by flooding.

Kyle Beauregard, whose 14-year-old son plays baseball with the Abbotsford Cardinals, was looking over the team’s field covered with more than 60 centimetres of water.

“It looks exactly like four years ago, which is surprising” he said. The flooding was a blow to the team, who “train all year round, so they need this facility.”

Beauregard, said the team had been asking the city for help “so the equipment inside stops getting destroyed.”

“It’s tough. This whole area they know it’s prone to this, but this is obviously new, the last four years,” he said.

— With files by Brieanna Charlebois in Vancouver

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 12, 2025.