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VIDEO. State of emergency declared after dramatic flooding in western Canada

2021-11-18T14:15:26.361Z


The torrential rains, landslides and flooding that have affected British Columbia in western C Flooded plains, thousands of evacuees, highways cut… British Columbia declared a state of emergency on Wednesday after torrential rains that have flooded the region since Sunday. "Hundreds of members of the Canadian armed forces are on their way to help," said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, adding that thousands of soldiers could be sent. Landslides and flooding have killed at least one


Flooded plains, thousands of evacuees, highways cut… British Columbia declared a state of emergency on Wednesday after torrential rains that have flooded the region since Sunday.

"Hundreds of members of the Canadian armed forces are on their way to help," said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, adding that thousands of soldiers could be sent.

Landslides and flooding have killed at least one person and four people are also missing. Trudeau, traveling to Washington, also pledged that the government "would be there for the cleanup and reconstruction" after these "extreme weather events". Entire streets are underwater in many cities after the Fraser Valley east of Vancouver recorded as much as 250mm of precipitation on Monday. Some places received about 95% of their monthly precipitation in 24 hours.

"The next steps may require extraordinary measures only permitted under the state of emergency," said Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety.

"I have no doubt that these events are linked to climate change, they are unprecedented by nature," he said.

Hundreds of farmers affected

This exceptional measure was previously taken to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

And this summer, when forest fires ravaged the province, which was suffocating under a historic heat wave.

The village of Lytton, 250 km northeast of Vancouver, had been 90% destroyed at the end of June by a fire in the middle of an extreme heat wave after reaching 49.6 degrees.

BC Premier John Horgan highlighted "unprecedented challenges in public health, wildfires, heat domes and now never before seen flooding." Like Tuesday, the weather was milder on Wednesday, with no rain. But the floods particularly affected hundreds of farmers in the region, authorities said. “Some are still inundated, others are sheltered and we have thousands of animals that have perished,” lamented Lana Popham, the provincial Minister of Agriculture.

Abbotsford, about 70 km southeast of Vancouver, on Tuesday evening urged some of its 162,000 residents to immediately evacuate due to a potential pumping station failure.

The day before, the 7,000 residents of the town of Merritt, 300 km northeast of Vancouver, were also evacuated.

Source: leparis

All life articles on 2021-11-18

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