VANCOUVER - How do you move 4,000 head of cattle to higher ground, and fast?
It's one of many questions crossing Abbotsford Mayor George Ferguson's desk these days as he fortifies his city against the risk of severe spring flooding.
"People ask about (the flooding) every day," Ferguson said. "What are we doing, what do you think the potential is, are we going to flood, what are you doing about it, all these kinds of questions come up."
The questions aren't unique to Abbotsford, a city of about 124,000, 80 kilometres east of Vancouver.
Across British Columbia, cities are grasping at the $33-million lifeline tossed by the provincial government to shore up their dikes and waterways against the possibility this year's spring thaw will result in heavy flooding.
By Apr. 1, the last date for an official measure of the snow pack around the province, levels in some areas were as much as 160 per cent above normal.
"The large snow accumulation does suggest that we have above-average flood potential," says Markus Schnorbus, a hydrologic modeling scientist with the Ministry of the Environment.
Crews are working around the clock and against a clock - the provincial dollars come with the caveat they must be spent on critical flood protection projects and are encouraging communities to have those completed by mid-May.
Ferguson doesn't understate the damage heavy flooding could cause: with highways and train tracks underwater, and livestock dead or running amok, "the whole economy of not only the province but the country would be brought to a standstill."
Though the city of Abbotsford asked for more than $42 million to reinforce old dikes and build new ones, the $2 million they received will shore up the Matsqui Prairie and Vedder Canal diking systems.
"We're doing what we can to be prepared for the situation," Ferguson says.
In nearby Chilliwack, population 65,000, acting Mayor Chuck Stam says they'll spend every penny of their $3.75 million.
Low portions of the city's east dike are being boosted and banks are being armoured.
Flooding in the fall forced the evacuation of more than 200 people and Stam says the city learned a valuable lesson.
Poor communication delayed the emergency response process by at least a half an hour.
"You have a lot of different organizations that kind of work at their own pace, work off their own rulebooks," he says.
"When you get into an emergency situation . . . they all need to jive and sometimes they don't."
A plan is now in place for smoother communication the next time around, Stam says.
Lessons were also learned in 1999, when the province didn't start planning for the record-high water levels until March.
Public Safety Minister John Les says he wasn't willing to let that happen again.
"I didn't want to be in a position where with the risk that we've been aware of for some time, that we would act in a way that was inadequate," he says.
Planning for this spring's potential flooding began in January, he says.
To date, at least 64 projects are underway, from repairing sinkholes, to replacing culverts and adding tonnes of rip rap rock to strengthen stream banks.
People are also being reminded to be prepared to look after themselves for 72 hours if necessary in the event of a disaster.
"It's walking the fine line by making sure on the one hand people are prepared and aware and on the other hand not being too alarmist," says Les.
Schnorbus cautions as well that just because there's snow in the mountains doesn't mean there will be flood in the valley.
"The thing is that the snow pack doesn't give us the whole picture," he says.
"We've had large snow packs in the past that didn't translate into flooding and we've had smaller snow packs in the past that did translate into flooding. There are many other factors."
The rate at which the snow pack melts depends entirely on the weather: in the three years where the snow pack in the Fraser Valley was higher than this year, there wasn't any flooding.
But despite all the planning meetings, the hoards of sand bags and the emergency operation centres, residents are faced with a hard truth.
"The reality is when Mother Nature decides to stomp you, you usually get stomped fairly well," says Tom Lacey, emergency program co-ordinator in Merritt, B.C.
"You go along for the ride that she provides."
