Kevin MILLS and Carol AUN
Mission Record
When Emmery Rosales woke early Saturday morning, she could hear water running. When she got up, she was standing in two feet of it.
Heavy rains overnight contributed to flooding all around the McRae Avenue area in Mission as Windebank Creek overflowed. Approximately 12 homes, including Rosales’ townhome, were damaged.
Rosales looked out a glass sliding door and saw a stream of knee-high water pushing against her home.
“It was instant panic.”
She ran to her children’s room to wake up her two-year-old daughter and six-year-old son. After taking them to safety with a neighbour, Rosales returned to her home.
By then, the water was higher than her daughter’s crib. Had the child still been in it, Rosales said she would have been in about six inches of water.
“Within about five or 10 minutes, if that. That’s how close it came.”
Rosales and her husband Geoff Hackett now face a long clean-up process. While unsure of the cost of repairs, it will require “ a complete gut job”
Because the townhome is part of a strata, some of the damage is covered by insurance, but the family has no coverage for the contents they’ve lost.
Clean-up is continuing in all the homes impacted by the flood.
Eighteen-year-old Kane Walker, who lives with his family near Hurd Street, said water damaged the basement of his house.
According to Walker, there was no warning for the high water. “It came through the drainage under the rocks (near the front door),” said Walker. “The street was like a river.”
Tracy Kyle, District of Mission’s director of engineering and public works, said the extent of damage to each home varied depending on the property’s grade.
Kyle said the flood was caused by a plugged culvert during a heavy rainfall. The creek overflowed onto the avenue and all the water and debris flowed downstream. The district crew cleared the culvert when the flood was reported.
The water quickly receded and the rain also eased up.
District staff met with residents and provided them with information for their insurance companies to repair their homes.
“There isn’t anything we could’ve done to predict what happened,” said Kyle, noting the district regularly inspects and clears culverts throughout Mission.
The last inspection was about a month ago.