TORONTO -- Among those most vulnerable to extreme weather every year are First Nations, and the catastrophic flooding that has hit B.C. has impacted numerous communities, with nine First Nations currently under evacuation order.
Today, members of the Canadian Forces reached some of those isolated Indigenous communities.
Bill Blair, minister of Emergency Preparedness, said in a federal update on the situation on Sunday that the government has received briefings on the 41 First Nations that have been affected by the flooding.
Defence Minister Anita Anand said in the update that the CAF are helping to resupply communities.
“Canadian Armed Forces members have also completed resupply missions, delivering a total of 3,000 pounds of food to the Nooaitch First Nation communities near Merritt,” Anand said.
Record-setting rainfall washed away a road leading to Nooaitch First Nation earlier in the week, but crews have since reconstructed it.
In B.C.’s Fraser Canyon, the blue sky is expected to turn an ominous grey before the region is showered in rain again. The military is racing to fill bags of sand to help the Chawathil First Nation on the traditional land of the Stahlo people.
Chief Rhoda Peters told 鶹ý that she hasn’t seen anything like this in her 70 years of living in this area.
“Not being cut off like this, with all the highways closed, no,” she said.
The community of 600 was battered by last week’s deluge.
“It was very trying, and then surreal, to really realize what predicament we were in,” Peters said.
The community had no power, no internet, and no connection to the outside world.
“It was like a creek coming through here,” one community member told 鶹ý. “It fills up over there first and then it just flows through like crazy.”
The man had his septic tank burst and is still trying to clean up even as he braces for more terrible weather.
“Hoping the smell will go soon too,” he said.
With another storm threatening on the horizon, communities are clinging on to their land, hoping there is still a way to fight this worrying new reality.