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B.C. STORM: Chilliwack horse owners scramble to move animals as rain water floods paddocks

Twenty horses in Greendale needed to be moved to other locations Monday morning
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Torrential rain left several Greendale horses standing knee deep in flood waters Monday morning, Nov. 15, 2021. (Facebook photo)

Horse owners in Greendale scrambled Monday morning (Nov. 15) as flooding left horses standing knee high in water.

Ryder Lake resident Debbie Hughes made a Facebook post around 8:30 a.m. asking for help to get several horses moved from the Hopedale Road area.

“Desperate for paddocks and stalls,” she wrote. “I have 20 horses from Greendale under water.”

Several people offered to help haul horses or provide space.

”I can take two and a friend take one,” Carina Les offered. “We can pick up all three. We are on Lickman Road.”

I have space for three, can push it to four short term in south Langley if there’s a way to get them down here, ” Katherine Townsley posted.

“I have tons of room if they could get to Clearwater,” said Dawn Beach Spencer.

RELATED: British Columbians warned to brace for further torrential rain, flooding through Monday

RELATED: Section of Coquihalla Highway washes away in storm near Hope

In a followup post not long after, Hughes said the response had been amazing, adding that most of the animals had been placed or were waiting for a trailer.

“Private facilities like the Thunderbird Show Park in Langley have offered spaces,” Hughes said when contacted by The Progress. “It depends where you are and where you can get too. Even up on Ryder Lake here we just had a little mud slide, and I’m not going to move off my mountain in case I can’t get back on.”

Some people, like Dena Ross, wanted to help but couldn’t.

“We could take three to four horses if we split our paddock, but we may soon be under water ourselves,” she wrote. “The paddock is OK at the moment but the rest of our property is under water and it’s climbing, so no idea how long it will hold out.

“Just praying the rain stops before another inch or two because then we will lose our winter hay.”

All across southern B.C., torrential rain has led to flash flooding and mudslides. A number of major roads and highways have been closed or rendered impassable, and a number of residents have been put on evacuation alerts.


@ProgressSports
eric.welsh@theprogress.com

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Eric Welsh

About the Author: Eric Welsh

I joined the Chilliwack Progress in 2007, originally hired as a sports reporter.
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