Crews stop flow of water over Sumas Dike in Abbotsford

In a news conference Sunday afternoon, Nov. 21, Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun said the breach on the Sumas River dike has been repaired.

"The floodgates are now fully open at Barrowtown which means that at this point, water is flowing from the Sumas River into the Fraser River. The dike repair work has now reached a point where the water from the Sumas River is no longer flowing into Sumas River Prairie lake bottom."

Mayor Braun says water levels dropped this morning on the eastern portion of the Sumas Prairie by three inches in the first six hours.

Despite the improvements, the city has extended the local state of emergency through November 29th.

“With all the good news we are still a long way from being out of danger," Braun said.

"We are in the processing of gathering some more detailed weather projections from Environment Canada for the week to come so that we can be as ready as possible."

Last week's "atmospheric river” dumped heavy rain on the Lower Mainland, causing widespread flooding in the Sumas Prairie region of Abbotsford.

The flooding caused the Sumas River to breach its dike in multiple places, and water poured through dozens of homes and across many acres of farmland.

Mayor Braun says the Canadian Forces continue to help with flood mitigation.

"Locally troops will be scheduled to start cleaning some of the covets and debris over the next few days."