On Sunday, Nov. 14, 2021, rain was falling in the Fraser Valley. By Monday, the Fraser Valley had been all but cut off from the rest of the province, and rising waters in the American Nooksack River threatened local farmland. By December, floodwaters inundated all of Sumas Prairie, homes were lost to raging rivers, and millions of dollars in damage had affected the entire valley.
Here, you can find all of our stories from the more than two-week disaster, including analysis, breaking news, and investigations.
Politics of disaster
Although the flood is now over, the valley still needs to prepare for what comes next. These stories look at what governments are, and aren’t, doing to prevent another Nooksack River flood and manage the damage from 2021.
International | Provincial | Local | Legal
International
Crossborder Nooksack teams have met 10 times since October (May 17, 2024)
On Sumas Prairie, BC hedges bets against Ottawa and Washington (Feb. 16, 2024)
Provincial
Interview: Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth (Dec. 9, 2022)

Local
The bureaucracy of disaster: what happened on Othello Road? (May 26, 2022)
Big problems, big solutions (Feb. 18, 2022)
Big disasters, small budgets (Feb. 9, 2022)
Small towns, big disasters (Jan. 31, 2022)
Legal
Behind the infrastructure
Although the 2021 disaster was a result of natural events, infrastructure played a major role in helping and hindering efforts to mitigate its impacts. We reported extensively on key pieces of infrastructure, including dikes, pump stations, and highways.
Dikes and pump stations
The state of the prairie, two years after (Nov. 9, 2023)
Why Sumas Prairie remains vulnerable to a repeat of 2021 (Nov. 8, 2023)
How Sumas Prairie is more protected than two years ago (Nov. 7, 2023)
Will billions in ‘recovery’ money boost flood defences? (Feb. 23, 2022)
Other infrastructure
In the nick of time: Behind Trans Mountain’s longest shutdown (Dec. 17, 2021)
Understanding disaster

While the Fraser Valley was experiencing its most costly disaster in decades, The Current was working to help residents understand why. That work is still ongoing, as new research continues to evolve our understanding of the 2021 events.
Rivers and other water
Nooksack flood risk to 'increase drastically' by 2080 (April 9, 2024)
Don't panic: how to properly read this Nooksack River graph (Dec. 7, 2023)
The Life and Times of the Nooksack River (Aug. 29, 2022)
The science of November (May 30, 2022)
The Volcano and The River (Nov. 29, 2021)
More than a drop in the bucket: last week’s deluge in context (Nov. 25, 2021)
Sumas Lake, the Nooksack River, and the historic roots of a 21st Century disaster (Nov. 16, 2021) - 2022 Webster Award winner
Agriculture
A deep dive into Sumas Prairie’s soil (March 8, 2022)
What is underneath all that water on Sumas Prairie? (Nov. 24, 2021)
One day at a time: tackling the Fraser Valley’s dairy crisis (Nov. 19, 2021)

The floods, landslides, and related disasters of November 2021 took a significant toll on residents in the Fraser Valley. These stories look at the challenges faced by disaster victims, but also celebrate their resiliency.
How music helped a flood survivor deal with his trauma (June 21, 2023)
The Fraser Valley flood, through children’s eyes (Jan. 24, 2022)
A motorcycle club answers a stranger’s call for help (Nov. 14, 2022)
‘Total optimism’ as Sumas Prairie’s littlest farms rebuild (April 28, 2022)
Thousands of sandbags and a grateful community (Nov. 30, 2021)
The Climate Disaster Project
The Current partnered with the University of Victoria’s Climate Disaster Project to share the stories of people directly affected by the Fraser Valley’s disaster. You can read an overview of the project here.
‘It was just water everywhere for miles and miles’ (Dec. 8, 2022)
‘It sounded like the whole world was coming to an end’ (Dec. 13, 2022)
‘The bus pulled into a parking lot and we just sat there’ (Dec. 19, 2022)
‘Lord save us!’: How a landslide changed Wanda Turner (Jan. 17, 2023)
Thoughts from November

After November 2021, we began sharing what we had learned from the disaster. Years later, there are still more questions to be asked.
What to read when you want to know more about Sumas Lake (Dec. 7, 2021)
The crisis in photos

Abbotsford was underwater. The army was arriving with sandbags. Helicopters touched down for rescue missions in local airports. This is what we saw.
Abbotsford underwater: photos from the Sumas Prairie flooding (Nov. 16, 2021)
PHOTOS: Weekend at the Chilliwack Airport (Nov. 21, 2021)
PHOTOS: Inside Abbotsford’s emergency operations centre (Nov. 29, 2021)
PHOTOS: PM visits flood devastation in Abbotsford (Nov. 29, 2021)
The $1.8 million view of BC’s floods and landslides (Dec. 20, 2021)
The disaster, as it happened

Breaking news is a hallmark of every disaster. These are stories that show what was happening as it happened. Stories with an asterisk* were updated throughout the flood. The date and headline represents the first publication of the article.
The latest on flooding and mudslides in the Fraser Valley* (Nov. 14-19, 2021)
BREAKING: Catastrophic damage predicted in Abbotsford* (Nov. 16, 2021)
Wednesday brings mostly good news for flood-struck valley (Nov. 17, 2021)
A Nooksack River flood looks increasingly possible (Nov. 23, 2021)
Hell’s Gate Airtram has survived floods (Nov. 23, 2021)
Fraser Valley Floods: How to give (and get) help (Nov. 26, 2021)
Three local highways to close in advance of more rain* (Nov. 27, 2021)
How to get around southern BC: a post-crisis highway primer (Dec. 3, 2021)
You might need a permit before fixing your flooded home (Dec. 7, 2021)
BC dairy farmers dumped 7.5M litres of milk in November (Dec. 15, 2021)
$228M in recovery funding for Fraser Valley farmers (Feb. 7, 2022)


