愛污传媒

British Columbia residents are coming together to fill sandbags and house perfect strangers as communities in the southern interior of the province deal with what emergency officials are calling a once-in-200-year flood.

Officials believe flood waters have peaked, but they warn that unseasonably warm temperatures could rapidly melt mountain snow and create more problems in rivers and lakes already swollen after torrential rain dumped as much as 50 millimetres in 24 hours.

There is also rain in the weekend forecast for the southern B.C. interior, adding to concerns that peak flood levels could remain for several days. Evacuation orders or alerts are in place for seven regional districts and seven First Nations communities, affecting nearly 3,000 homes. There are 23 local states of emergency in place, with firefighters and volunteers filling two million sandbags in an attempt to divert the water.

The Regional District of Kootenay Boundary in southeast B.C. says flooding that hit Thursday following two days of heavy rain pushed the Kettle, West Kettle and Granby rivers to levels higher than those recorded during devastating floods 70 years ago.

Damage from torrential rain has already had a "catastrophic" impact on the community of Grand Forks, said Chris Marsh of the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary.

"The effects from this event will be long lasting," said Marsh. "We're talking years and years and millions of dollars."

Nearly 2,800 residents have been forced out of their homes, Marsh said Friday, adding rescue efforts have come with some challenges.

"We have a lot of people who refused to leave under order and we had to put a lot of our rescue resources into going back into rescuing these people," he said.

The district says in a news release that all the rivers peaked overnight Thursday and work will now focus on reaching trapped residents, determining property and infrastructure damage, and creating a re-entry plan for residents.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a real frenzy,鈥� said Grand Forks resident Michelle Regnier, who at one point had 26 people living with her, including 10 strangers.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not the only ones. There are lots of people that have huge households.鈥�

She told 愛污传媒 Channel Friday evening that some of her guests have left to go further away and she has two more families coming but doesn鈥檛 know how many people that will bring. She鈥檚 been using food stored in her freezers to feed the crowds. Many stores are closed and those that are open can鈥檛 accept credit or debit transactions.

鈥淚t really doesn鈥檛 matter, you have to do what you have to do and our community, Grand Forks, is amazing.鈥�

Regnier drove to Castlegar, about 100 kilometres away, to pick up emergency prescriptions and other supplies because all local stores were closed. The water was about three-quarters of a metre deep getting over a bridge out of Grand Forks, she said.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 even know if we can get home. I really don鈥檛 know if we can, at this point. Cars that were too low to the ground were being asked to leave the queue.鈥�

Grand Forks pastor Gabe Warriner was among more than 1,000 volunteers who showed up to three different sand-bagging sites Thursday and filled between 10,000 and 15,000 bags. People used shovels and tractors and trucks to move sand, he says, and other people showed up to bring food and drinks to volunteers.

鈥淭here鈥檚 hope. That鈥檚 what we always tell people. We try to be as prepared as possible for all of these things, but this has been a shocker. Nobody thought it would get this high. Nobody thought it would actually flow through their home.鈥�

Dayna Honour-Harris, who also lives in Grand Forks, had just 15 minutes to evacuate her home Thursday night. She and her son Julian are now staying with friends who live at a higher elevation. They tried to get a look at their home Friday morning, but found water levels had risen and roads were blocked.

鈥淟ast I heard our house was significantly under water,鈥� Honour-Harris told 愛污传媒 Channel Friday afternoon. The order to evacuate caught her off guard.

鈥淚t happened so fast. They were quite a few areas, including where we were living, that we never really expected it to get that bad. There were a lot of evacuation alerts put out, primarily for the access roads out of Grand Forks. But we didn鈥檛 feel we were in imminent danger of flooding.鈥�

Julian had to leave all his belongings behind.

鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of been very scary. When we were hopping out of the house I saw everything floating鈥�I鈥檝e never had something like this happen before.鈥�

Environment Canada forecasts are raising concerns because temperatures across the region are expected to reach the high 20s this weekend, nearly 10 degrees above normal.

The hot weather could cover much of the southern and central part of B.C. into next week, meaning heavy upper-level snowpacks would melt rapidly and cause further flooding.

The evacuation alert and state of emergency have been lifted for the Caribou Region District, says Emily Epp, emergency operations public information officer for the district.

She said flooding in that area, which is further north than other affected zones, peaked two weeks ago, when high temperatures led to a rapid melt in low- to mid-level snowpacks. While that melt has been decreasing, officials expect that upcoming warm weather could start melting snow at higher elevations, Epp told 愛污传媒 Channel late Friday afternoon.

Caribou officials will monitor areas surround the Quesnel, Cottonwood, and Horsefly rivers, she said.

鈥淥ur main message is preparation goes a long way.鈥�

The River Forecast Centre says flood warnings are in effect on waterways throughout the Okanagan and Boundary regions while flood watches are posted for many other rivers and streams, including the Similkameen and Tulameen rivers west of Grand Forks.

Parts of the town of Osoyoos were ordered evacuated Thursday and flooding is also reported in Keremeos, Cawston and Okanagan Falls.

Osoyoos, which is along the Canada-U.S. border, has declared a state of local emergency and ordered homeowners with flooded basements to stop pumping the water back into the town's sewer system.

"The act of causing this water to enter the sewer system in current conditions is causing pump infrastructure to function beyond capacity, which may result in a breakdown of the town sewer management system," says a news release issued by the town.

With files from The Canadian Press

With files from The Canadian Press