TORONTO – Among the countries most vulnerable to annual extreme weather are the First Nations, and the catastrophic flooding that occurred before BC has affected many communities, with nine First Nations currently undergoing treatment. canopy.
Today, members of the Canadian Forces reach some of those isolated Indigenous communities.
Bill Blair, Minister of Emergency Preparedness, said in a federal update on the situation Sunday that the government had received briefings on the 41 First Nations that have been affected by flooding. .
Defense Secretary Anita Anand said in the update that the CAF is helping to resupply communities.
“Canadian Armed Forces members also completed resupply missions, delivering a total of 3,000 pounds of food to the Nooaitch First Nation community near Merritt,” Anand said.
Record rainfall washed away a road leading to Nooaitch First Nation earlier in the week, but teams have recreated it.
In BC’s Fraser Canyon, the blue sky is expected to turn an ominous gray before the area rains again. The army is racing to fill sandbags to help the First Nation of Chawathil on the traditional Stahlo lands.
Sheriff Rhoda Peters told CTV News she hasn’t seen anything like this in her 70 years of living in the area.
“Not cut off like this, with all highways closed, no,” she said.
The community of 600 people was devastated by last week’s cataclysmic flood.
“It was trying, and then surreal, to really realize the predicament we were in,” Peters said.
The community has no power, no internet and no connection to the outside world.
“It’s like a creek running through here,” one community member told CTV News. “First it fills up there and then it flows through like crazy.”
The man had a broken septic tank and was still trying to clean up even as he braced himself for the worse weather.
“Hopefully the smell will also go away soon,” he said.
With another storm threatening on the horizon, communities are clinging to their land, hoping for a way to combat this disturbing new reality.
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