THE City of Abbotsford is issuing an immediate and urgent notice to all residents that did not evacuate the Sumas Prairie earlier on Tuesday to evacuate immediately.

Conditions within the Sumas Prairie within the last hour have escalated and pose a significant risk to life due to the imminent failure of the Barrowtown Pump Station. The Barrowtown Pump Station serves as a critical piece of infrastructure to ensure the Sumas Lake does not reform. With the failure of this key piece of infrastructure, water within the Sumas Prairie will not be able to be pumped out and water from the Fraser River will begin entering the already flooded Sumas Prairie area.

Additional water flow down from Sumas Mountain is also now creating further flooding in the area. This event is anticipated to be catastrophic.

Residents need to abandon their efforts to save livestock, ignoring current orders in place and to leave the area immediately.  Residents remaining and can’t evacuate safely are requested to call 911 and report their location immediately.

Abbotsford City water in the Sumas Prairie will be turned off at 9 p.m. as a current water main breach within the Sumas Prairie has occurred due to erosion.

A map of the affected area is below.