Thursday December 11, 2025 | VANCOUVER, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Rainfall has subsided and some impacted highways have been re-opened. Contact has been made with farmers in affected areas.
That’s the overall message from today’s BC government update about the flooding impacts from a significant atmospheric river dump of rain yesterday and last night.
Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Climate Readiness Kelly Greene and Minister of Agriculture and Food Lana Popham addressed media from Vancouver today.
Information was also provided by senior staff from the BC River Forecast Centre and the Ministry of Transportation and Transit.
There is localized flooding still in the Fraser Valley area, even though the rainfall has stopped.
Evacuation update:
Flooding is still occuring due to high water levels in the Fraser Valley area, Abbotsford area, and Okanagan-Similkameen area.
There are 400 properties on evacuation order and 1,800 on evacuation alert, said Minister Greene today.
Evacuation alerts and orders can be found at EmergencyInfoBC.ca and in social media on X at @EmergencyInfoBC. She reminds people to stay off the roads and not take any unnecessary trips.
Farms:
Farms have been contacted as to their flood-impact status, in some cases by Minister Popham herself.
Some farms with livestock are under evacuation alert, said Popham today.
External backup power has been provided to the provincial agriculture testing facility.
Highways:
As reported today by Janelle Staite of the Ministry of Transportation and Transit:
- Highway 1 in the Sumas region is open
- Highway 1 eastbound remains closed
- The Coquihalla remains closed between Hope and Merritt
Last night (Wednesday December 10) the following highways were closed:
- Highway 1 eastbound closed at Bridal Falls / Highway 9 – significant amount of water crossing Hwy 1
- Highway 1 closed between Hope and Lytton
- Highway 3 closed between Hope and Princeton
- Highway 5 (Coquihalla) closed between Hope and Merritt / due to flooding
- Highway 7 is closed west of Hope (between Highway 9 and Ross Road) / small rockfall later in the day
- Highway 11 at the Sumas border crossing is closed to commercial traffic, open to local traffic only
- Highway 99 is closed between Pemberton/Lillooet and Mt. Currie
“Good progress’ has been made overnight with highway conditions and access, said Staite.
Weather:
Another atmospheric river is in the forecast for Sunday night (December 14) into Monday, according to David Campbell of the BC River Forecast Centre today.
===== RELATED:
- Major highways between Lower Mainland & Interior closed due to flooding (December 10, 2025)
- Flood risk update with BC Minister of Emergency Management (December 10, 2025)
- NEWS SECTIONS: EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS | TRAFFIC | WEATHER IMPACTS | AGRICULTURE & FOOD