Terrifying Flooding in British Columbia

These videos shared by Jordan Jongema to his Instagram detailed the devastation to his home in Yarrow and the conditions that stranded him and his dog Bowser on Monday overnight before crews rescued the pair. Photo by JORDAN JONGEMA / INSTAGRAM

Jordan Jongema

"Those ten hours were easily the most terrifying times I've ever experienced in my life."

"I had heard there were looters going around Yarrow to empty houses, so shame on me for staying just a few minutes too long to protect the place."

"As we were leaving, the water pooled over the road and it started like fountaining, like a stream. I could have been driving into a deeper pool so I just...went back to my house and we had to wait it out in there. And as time went by, it got worse and worse.”

"A massive wave of water started to rush [over the roadway and into his front yard]."

"By the time it was midnight, I was wading through the kitchen, swimming in the backyard up to my chest, trying to find any flotation devices. Pitch black and freezing cold water for hours."

"The fear of the pump station breaking and the Fraser River flowing through made me want to die. Bows and I lay on my bed with the water half-an-inch from covering it."

Jordan Jongema, B.C. flood victim, Yarrow, British Columbia

"I believe it was Coquitlam Fire or Coquitlam SAR, actually, went and got that dog right near the end of the [rescue] queue."

"He's a service dog and so the fellow was just over the moon."

"So it was really cool that they were able to pull that off. That was good customer service, definitely worth the risk."

Abbotsford Fire Chief Darren Lee

Bowser, a 120-pound Bernese mountain dog, is pictured in a rescue boat in the early hours of Tuesday after he and his owner Jordan Jongema were rescued after flood waters breached his home and left the pair stranded. Photo by HANDOUT

British Columbia's Interior was  hit by a catastrophic rain event that started last Sunday with high winds and torrential rain. Between Sunday and Monday, more rain fell than normally would in a full month during the province's late fall rainy season. The local weatherman spoke of an 'atmospheric river' that drenched the province causing critical mudslides, rockfalls and floods leaving motorists stranded for 17 hours on highways between two road washouts. Rail lines were disrupted, bridges were washed out and so were highways.

 

Orders for evacuation went out for a number of places inundated by floods. Several hundred people stranded in their vehicles were airlifted by helicopter to safety. Farmers were desperately trying to lead their livestock to higher ground, many remaining behind on their farms despite orders to evacuate. The military was called in to provide logistical and rescue assistance. All of the province's many and varied rescue teams were tasked to endure unsafe conditions to rescue those trapped in flooded areas.

 

A person paddles a kayak past a submerged taxi after the major flood event in Abbotsford. More federal assistance is on its way to the province as reconstruction begins. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

Jordan Jongema was one of those trapped people. He and his dog Bowser, a 120-pound Bernese mountain dog, found themselves in a frightening impasse with rising flood waters. They were stranded when rising flood waters suddenly breached his home and property. He was in fact preparing to leave for safety from Yarrow where he lived, some 99 km east of Vancouver. He thought he had time to spare but was soon disabused of that reassurance. 

 

"A massive wave of water started to rush" over the road and into his front yard as he began pulling out of his driveway. With thoughts of his car being flipped by the debris-filled water he turned back, deciding that he and Bowser would stay where they were, safe at home while the water raged outside. Nature had other plans, as he soon discovered. The flood waters entered his house and by 1:00 a.m. reached up to his knees.

He thought about seeking respite from the rising waters on the roof of his house, but found himself struggling with trying to figure out how he might manage to get Bowser onto the roof. And then, an hour later, his phone battery died, leaving him feeling "emotionally butchered". He lay with Bowser on his bed, just minimally above the water level and no doubt imagining what might happen as the water kept inching up.

And then, at about 3:30 a.m., a boat sounded outside his window. He leaped to the window and shouted, shining a flashlight, hoping to attract the attention of whoever it was in the boat. As the rescuers in the boat edged close to the house, Jongema held Bowser up and shoved him out the window, then crawled himself out to the raft. One they reached dry land some kilometres distant, Jongema and Bowser were then driven to a safe site.

According to officials, eleven people in the vicinity that night were rescued overnight. Forty farmers chose to remain in the eastern portion of the Sumas Prairie, tending their properties and their livestock.

Farmers carry their livestock out of a flooded barn in Abbotsford. The city southeast of Vancouver is home to half of B.C.'s dairy farms and has been hit badly by the devastating floods. (Ben Nelms/CBC)