Southwest Flooding
Kindness Prevails as Cleanup Begins Many growing regions were hard hit by November’s floods, including the Fraser Valley where nature attempted to restore Sumas Lake. By Ronda Payne Anyone in BC who questioned the impacts of climate change was likely silenced by the atmospheric rivers that fell on the province in mid-November 2021. Prior to the record-smashing deluge, the term atmospheric river was only used in meteorological circles. Now, people throughout the Lower Mainland, Fraser Valley, Nicola Valley and beyond associate the phrase with disaster.
Photo by Ronda Payne
Record volumes of rain fell as the province was hit by three atmospheric river events, one after the other. The unprecedented storm washed away highways, kicked over bridges, breached century-old dikes, and overwhelmed pumps as homes were destroyed, farms were flooded, and animals were evacuated or died in their fields and barns. Perhaps the hardest hit agricultural area was Sumas Prairie, formerly Sumas Lake. Caroline Morstertman (co-owner of Ripples) and volunteer helper Abe Gotzke.
Drained from 1920 to 1924 to create valuable farmland, the region flooded 100 years later as the Fraser River flooded, and waters from the Nooksack River breached a critical dike. Productive farmland, homes and businesses were under more than eight feet of water in some areas. Most property owners are left without insurance due to the region being in a floodplain. Ripples Winery Overwhelmed with Help
Photo credit: Ripples Estate Winery
The hardest hit farms were primarily those with dairy cattle, poultry, and various berry crops. Among the latter, Caroline Mostertman, co-owner of Ripples Winery and New Wave Distilling, was in shock at first as her blueberry and grape winery and the berry farm were buried under a tide of muddy water. Who wouldn’t be, with water lapping up around the top of door frames?
The breach of a critical dike practically submerged the Ripples Estate Winery in November.
“The positive side is that we have been inundated with people to help us,” she says. “It’s Pre Spring 2022
29
