BC Flooding Nailed Abbotsford, Which Supplies Half The Dairy, Eggs, Poultry For The Province
Thousands of farm animals have died and many more are trapped by floods in desperate need of food and water after the Pacific north-west storm battered a major hub of Canadian agriculture.
Torrential rains pummelled swathes of western Canada’s British Columbia and Washington state in the US in recent days – dumping a month’s worth of rain in two days in some areas – causing floods and mudslides that swallowed stretches of highways and forced the evacuation of thousands of people. One person has been killed and several have been reported missing.
Abbotsford, one of Canada’s most intensively and diversely farmed areas, was among places hardest hit. Home to more than 1,200 farms, it supplies half of the dairy, eggs and poultry consumed by British Columbia’s 5.2 million residents. Aerial footage showed several barns engulfed by flood waters. Farmers and residents have been frantically scrambling to save their animals from rising waters, resorting to motorboats and jetskis to tow partly submerged cows one by one to higher ground.
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She said while some farmers had towed cows out of the flood waters, the rescued animals were “not in good shape” after their ordeal. “I can also tell you that many farmers attempted to move animals and then had to walk away because the roads were disappearing beneath them.” In Abbotsford, Braun said it was too early to say how many animals had died. But a helicopter tour had given a dire picture of the storm’s impact. He said: “I saw barns that looked like they were half full of water. I can’t imagine that there are any birds left alive, but we don’t have those numbers.” In 2010, the area raised more than 9 million poultry birds.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/18/canada-floods-leave-thousands-of-farm-animals-dead-and-more-trapped