We've had non-stop torrential rain for days. Environment Canada issued a Rain/Storm warning. No one expected what just happened. Yesterday was our Red Hat lunch. I was dressed and ready to go with 20 minutes to spare. Then I hear a huge sound and this happened:
The weatherman said when the rain subsides at noon, expect high winds. This was before the high winds. The branch was close to our house and with a strong wind, we could lose a window or two! I emailed our strata and he had an arborist at our home in an hour! They couldn't take the tree down but figured it would be safe so they took the broken branches down and left them in our yard! I was thrilled they came so fast. I'm sure they were very busy.
When the rain finally stopped just after lunch, we ventured out. There were flooded roads, everywhere! The Cloverdale Mall was flooded, when we drove out of Willowbrook Mall, again huge flooding and a small car was sitting in the water with his flashers going! When we passed the Serpentine and Nicomekl Rivers they were right up to the banks and almost touching the bridges we were driving over!
There are so many people stranded, some for the second night. The entire town of Merritt has been evacuated. My friend Gail in Princeton was in tears when I called yesterday morning to see how they were doing. There property is little higher than most in Princeton and they have no water close to their house. At the end of their very long driveway that ends at Highway 3 there is 3 1/2 feet of water! Fortunately they don't have any cattle in the fall.
Within the lower mainland, Highway 99, just before the Oak Street Bridge to Vancouver has been close all day to traffic, north and south because of flooding. Highway 1, Canada's link from coast to coast is now closed at Abbotsford.
On June 30th, 90% of the town of Lytton was devastated by fire. Here is Highway 1 just outside Lytton, as if they haven't had enough grief:
There are four highways out of Vancouver to the rest of Canada. They are all closed with major slides. Some of them are going to take weeks to fix.
