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Glad you're OK and hope that the floods will recede now. Stay safe.
Interesting about the lake. Someone on Wikipedia has made a nice animated .gif:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumas_Lake
An interesting article:
But European settlers in the early 1900s also made their case for draining the lake by pointing out that it created a mosquito population nightmare during the flood season. Research by Abbotsford’s The Reach Gallery Museum states the mosquitoes were such a problem to the extent that it forced schools to close, with children kept indoors for up to six weeks. As well, farmers reported that unprotected young livestock died from the loss of blood.
[...]
Within a few years, tens of thousands of acres of farmland were added to the Lower Mainland, becoming the Sumas Prairie of quilted, pristine green fields. This area of the former lake bed became some of the most productive farmland in Canada.
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Following the historic rainstorm that swept across much of BC earlier this week, this entire intricate system that prevents the Sumas Lake from reforming is on the verge of collapse. Officials with the City of Abbotsford sounded the alarm Tuesday evening over the imminent failure of the Barrowtown Pump Station that prevents excess water from entering the Sumas Prairie.
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“The Barrowtown Pump Station serves as a critical piece of infrastructure to ensure the Sumas Lake does not reform,” stated the city in Tuesday night’s release.
“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.”
In a scenario without a fully operational Barrowtown Pump Station, there is no telling when the currently flooded Sumas Prairie and Highway 1 segments, along with the reformation of Sumas Lake, could be drained. The lake would likely quickly re-emerge within days of the pump station’s failure, with water cascading from the Fraser River into areas below sea level.
[...]
However, by Wednesday morning, it became clear that disaster in the Sumas Prairie was narrowly averted for now, thanks to the efforts of about 300 people, including firefighters, contractors, farmers, and volunteers, who worked throughout the night to protect the pump station from floodwaters.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/sumas-lake-sumas-prairie-barrowtown-pump-station-abbotsford-flooding
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Oliver Schick
@mrs_socks
It is pretty wild here right now, but we are lucky in Vancouver that we're mostly free from flooding. We're cut off from the interior, and the floods are not far away but we're safe and sound. Still drying my wet boots from having to take my bike through a 30cm deep flood on the cycleway to school the other day, but that's pretty minimal compare to the rest of the lower mainland! Weird what happens when you drain a huge lake and build on it....