British Columbians deal with aftermath of heavy rain while bracing for more

Following weeks of heavy rain across B.C., Priya Sharma was terrified to find four feet of water flooding her Esquimalt home on Tuesday evening.

And she says more rain in the forecast has heightened feelings of anxiety.

“If there’s a lot more rainfall happening, we don’t know what else is gonna be underwater,” she said.

“It’s been quite scary.”

PHOTOS | Atmospheric river brings flooding to Fraser Valley:

Rain and stormy weather has wreaked havoc across the province over the past few weeks.

Flooding triggered states of local emergency in the Fraser Valley, while strong winds knocked out power for about 120,000 people across parts of the South Coast Wednesday morning.

Sharma and her partner noticed streams of water pouring into her lot from a neighbouring construction site on Tuesday.

She says her home, which is almost 120 years old, is located at the lowest point on the block.

“I am quite anxious and scared about what costs I am going to have to incur, and how my house is going to survive this," Sharma said.

Sharma is not alone.

A Victoria-area restoration company says it has had a busy few weeks.

Josh Day, one of the owners of ServiceMaster Restore, compared the event to the historic November 2021 atmospheric river that hit much of southern B.C., including Vancouver Island.

He said on some nights over the past two weeks, they received about 100 calls.

“What we’re experiencing now is full saturation in the ground," Day said on CBC's On The Island. "The water is going to find those low and weak points."

He said crews were often out all night helping remove water from homes, schools and storefronts.

Meanwhile, in the Fraser Canyon in B.C.’s Interior, heavy rain is hitting wildfire-damaged slopes.

B.C.’s Ministry of Transportation has warned drivers this can lead to a high risk of landslides, and even pre-emptively closed a stretch of Highway 1 between Hope and Lytton earlier this week due to landslide risk.

Kevin Sampson, band councillor and emergency program manager with the Lytton First Nation, says the rain has been consistent for the past week.

“Everything is saturated,” he said on CBC’s Daybreak Kamloops. “It’s been challenging.”

He said the nation's biggest concern is debris falling on the roads, and side roads potentially getting washed out.

Wastewater issues

In Fernie, rain is pushing the city’s wastewater plant over the limit.

Heavy rain over the last two weeks forced the city to release untreated, but diluted, sewage into the Elk River.

Jenny Weir, the city’s director of engineering and public works, said the region has received so much rain that this is necessary to avoid catastrophic failure of the wastewater treatment plant and pumping stations.

“The releasing of the untreated effluent is always our last resort,” she said. “It’s needed to prevent severe consequences.”

Weir says the city expects the wastewater to be diluted enough that there are no lasting impacts to the river.