Products Products
Surging river forces evacuation alert in Vancouver

June 21, 2012, Vancouver – An evacuation alert has now been issued for
the Metro Vancouver community of Barnston Island, in the middle of the
Fraser River.

June 21, 2012, Vancouver – An evacuation alert has now been issued for the Metro Vancouver community of Barnston Island, in the middle of the Fraser River.

The island, 40 kilometres east of Vancouver, lies between Pitt Meadows and Surrey and is home to a thriving farming community and a reserve of the Katzie First Nation.

Residents were warned Wednesday night that rising levels of the Fraser River would likely force an evacuation alert within hours.

Property owners in lowlying areas of Fraser Valley communities from Hope to Langley are already on alert, although the river is expected to peak at Hope, on the eastern end of the Fraser Valley, within hours.

The River Forecast Centre predicts the entire Fraser River, from north of Prince George, all the way to its delta, in Richmond, will remain high through Sunday – before swelling again after a weekend of expected high temperatures and heavy rain.

Elsewhere, evacuation alerts are issued for properties from Mara Lake to Sugar Lake, on the Shuswap River north of Vernon, and a boil water notice is in effect for about 150 homes in the Enderby area, due to possible ground water contamination as North Okanagan waterways continue to surge.