An Abbotsford winery is bustling with people and back open after a catastrophic flood forced the business to close when it was submerged in more than six feet of water.
Ripples Estate Winery and New Wave Distilling flooded after water came rushing toward the property in November after a breach on the Sumas River dike. At the time, B.C. was hit with a record-breaking deluge of rain called an atmospheric river.
Kelsey Mostertman, head distiller at the family-run business, recalls the incident as traumatizing.
"One of the hardest parts of everything was seeing a business that my parents [built]... watching 40 years of work get washed away underneath them," she says. "It was pretty incredible seeing how strong they were but it was also really hard watching that loss for them."
During the flood, concerns were made about not only the property and equipment but also the future of their blueberries.
"They are slowly coming back, but they are quite stunted in their growth. Have a little bit of fruit on them but waiting to see what they will actually look like,” she tells Glacier Media.
Blueberries are used to make the wine and spirits at Ripples. The crops surrounding the property can be deceiving as they seem to be growing. But Mostertman says they've been damaged.
"If you drive around all the neighbouring crop, most of the blueberries haven’t bounced back for some reason. People have been saying the crops are coming back but they are not.”
The blueberries were submerged underwater for weeks.
“Then right after that we had that minus-20-degree snap, so all of the bushes were completely saturated and then we had that really cold weather coming in that froze all the stocks,” Mostertman says.
Now, staff are relying on products from last summer and are waiting to see what happens to the crops.
"A lot of people have just forgot the flood happened and, for a lot of us here, it’s still very much in the back of our head,” she says.
The winery is now open, but it wouldn’t have happened without the support from the community.
“It’s been a huge community effort.”
One volunteer, named Victoria, made such an impact on the family that they even named a wine after her.
"It’s quite shocking to think if it wasn’t for the goodwill of people we wouldn’t be back in our home, we wouldn’t have our business running again,” she says.
Waiting on financial support
Mostertman and her family have applied for financial support from the province but say they have yet to receive any funding.
Glacier Media reached out to Emergency Management BC and was told it cannot release specific application details due to privacy.
"We know this has been an incredibly challenging time for people and communities impacted by flooding and landslides,” says a spokesperson. "We know that people applying for Disaster Financial Assistance (DFA) need this money as soon as possible.”
More than 2,200 applications for DFA have been received by individuals, small businesses, farms, charitable organizations, and local governments impacted by the November 2021 flooding.
According to the spokesperson, more than $11.5 million has been paid as of July 5.
"The Canada-BC Flood Recovery Program for Food Security delivers the greatest amount of support of its kind in B.C.'s history, with $228 million to help B.C. farmers recover, return to operation, and help strengthen our food security and food economy,” says the spokesperson.
Staff are doing field assessments, 400 of which have been done, and many people will be having multiple visits in the coming months to make decisions on “planting” and “repairs.”
On days it rains, Mostertman’s thoughts drift to concerns about another flood.
"We are at the mercy of what the dikes will hold up to," she says.
Neighbouring properties still have not moved back home, while others are creating their own flood protection, some even building their own dam system, she adds.
Mostertman would like to see more infrastructure put in place around the Sumas River.
"It needs to be something continuously worked on," she says.
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