Terrifying, frantic, and heartbreaking: Farmers remember the BC floods | Daily Hive

An aerial view of the flooding that devastated Abbotsford (BC Gov/Flickr).

As a devastating storm caused intense flooding in the Fraser Valley last year, Gary Baars was one of the local farmers helping others move livestock from the Sumas Prairie region into dry areas.

In mid-November 2021, extreme flooding and mudslides caused by record-breaking precipitation led to people’s homes being destroyed and their livelihoods being uprooted. It also led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of farm animals.

Some heartbreaking images that have been embedded into people’s minds include dozens of cows floating in the water while farmers pulled them to safety using boats, jet skis, and tractors.

“We were floating animals out. We had tractors hooked up to trailers,” Baars explained. “For the most part, we’re able to get most of them out, but there were definitely some animals that had to be put down because of the situation.”

“Hard choices had to be made,” he said.

Love this – cows saved from flooding at WestGen #Abbotsford #flood pic.twitter.com/S5XqOGLfvw

— Ben Lypka (@BenLypka) November 17, 2021

According to Minister of Agriculture Lana Popham, 98% of cows from the Sumas Prairie survived the flood, crediting farmers like Baars for “working together and communities making sure that they had those farmers’ backs.”

Sarah Sache, the vice-chair of the BC Dairy Association and a dairy farmer in Rosedale added, “When you think about the magnitude of the number, we felt very fortunate that we were able to escape with that lower number.”

“But anytime an animal loses its life, it’s not something we enjoy. It’s really sad for the families and farms. A lot of the families are raised around these animals. So they’re not just in the barn to us. They’re part of my lifestyle and our livelihood and it was awful to see them go,” she said.

“If you start to overthink, you can’t move.”

Baars owns a 40-acre farm in Abbotsford and has been farming since 2011 as a first-generation farmer with his wife.

He and his wife were out of town the weekend before the extreme flooding. However, their plans quickly changed when they noticed how heavy the rain was getting in BC.

While they didn’t anticipate what the storm would bring, Baars said they returned to the Chilliwack home just in time before major highways were closed.

When the couple woke up Monday morning, he said they saw the first sign of how bad the storm was.

“We live in Chilliwack, which is not anywhere near where the actual flooding was, but the base of entry was filled with water, which we had never had before.”

By the afternoon, Baars headed to his cousin’s farm, which is about 10 kilometres west of his dairy farm.

“Water started flooding his barn and that night we did a bit of rescue operation… that was when we knew things were really insane. My friend and I took his boat to get him and his workers off their farm.”

Calves being rescued by boat in Abbotsford / Brad Mueller

Baars said with so much happening around him, there was never a chance to process what was happening to him and his community.

After helping his cousin, the next day, Baars and his neighbours noticed major flooding.

“I was able to function because if you start to overthink, you can’t move,” he said.

Before flooding got worse, Baars moved his cattle.

By the storm’s end, Baars had equipment soaked underwater as well as multiple residences, a suite, and an office that were destroyed.

Once the water subsided, Baars added the land was filled with debris.

The recovery was a painstaking process, but looking back he is grateful they all got through it.

“We’re fortunate we had great farms to take out animals and they survived the move really well,” he said, adding the cattle were back home five weeks later.

While Baars received some financial assistance, he said, “I ended up not getting some of the coverage I thought I was gonna get.”

“I spent probably close to $250,000 out of pocket, just cleaning up,” he said. “That’s not even cleaning one of the houses because my grandma, she’s taking care of the house and I took care of everything else.”

“Are we doing this for nothing?”

Baars admitted his recovery is going well, and he feels very fortunate, but he continues to worry about how the next weather event will impact his business.

While Abbotsford’s rainfall event in November 2021 is estimated to be a once-in-100-year event, Baars said, “It’s always in the back of your head.”

“It makes you question, ‘Is it the best spot to farm?’ ‘Is this safe?’ ‘All this money we spent, are we doing this for nothing?'”

“It’s just a tough time to be running any business or farming in particular,” Baars added. “With increased cost, interest rates are high, so I just feel like we’re in a pretty crushing time right now.”

The city recorded 540 mm over the month — about 33% of Abbotsford’s average annual rainfall over November alone. The heavy rain system also caused the season’s early mountain snowpack to undergo a rapid melt, adding to the freshet volume.

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Sache, who speaks on behalf of the BC Dairy Association, explained the floods followed a terrible forest fire season last summer, and after the floods, the industry continued to experience a terrible growing season as it rained until June of 2022.

“So people weren’t able to get their crops planted at the normal time on top of the recovery of trying to fix up all their equipment and repair homes and barns and all of that,” she said.

“A lot of hard work and effort went into the recovery and being able to basically return to shipping milk as needed prior to the flood, but it wasn’t without a lot of time spent, a lot of money, and a lot of effort.”

While farmers are receiving support from the province, Sache emphasizes that there is a need to focus on infrastructure in the Sumas Prairie region.

A report from the City of Abbotsford has outlined potential option s, including effective ways to prevent water from overflowing the banks of the Nooksack River in Washington State.

Significant flows — especially when the flood boxes are closed — can overflow the Sumas Dike, causing water to run into the former lake bottom area of Sumas Prairie, reforming the lake.

Sache said a good start to show the government is prepared to protect food security in the area is to fund permanent repairs to the dike, add a pump station and harden the existing pump station in the area.

“The amount of food that can be produced in the Sumas Prairie is amazing and protecting that area and the farms that operate within it should be a priority.”