The local water treatment facility was overwhelmed by flood waters earlier in the week, so the water flowing through the city is now mixed with sewage and is undrinkable. Officials in the town of Merritt also pleaded with residents who had defied a mandatory evacuation to leave their homes, as a bridge in the British Columbia community collapsed into the swollen Nicola river. With the surrounding area underwater, the manager arranged a boat to bring people to the restaurant. “Lots of people slept in their cars overnight,” she said. Trina Enns told CBC News said she and a neighbouring family slept inside a McDonald’s in Abbotsford after evacuating their homes nearby. Hundreds of locals joined efforts to stack sandbags around the pumping station, and on Wednesday morning, Braun said the river levels were dropping – and it appeared the pumps would hold. City officials feared that pumps, which divert water from the basin at a rate of half a million gallons a minute, were on the verge of failing – meaning even more water would inundate parts of the city. Much of the area lies on the former site of Sumas Lake, a vast body of water which was drained in the last century. “I implore anyone who is listening to this to please heed the evacuation order and leave. “Nothing is worth your life,” Henry Braun told residents in an emergency news conference. In the city of Abbotsford, emergency crews using helicopters and boats rescued 184, as the mayor warned “catastrophic” flooding could occur if its pump station failed. Vancouver remained isolated from the rest of the country by road and the two largest rail companies, Canadian National and Canadian Pacific, have said damage to their tracks has halted freight service. 01:06 Aerial footage shows aftermath of catastrophic floods that hit British Columbia – video
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