Sandbags next to the Nechako River – photos courtesy the District of Vanderhoof

Vanderhoof, B.C. – If there’s been a silver lining to the flooding in Vanderhoof, perhaps it’s that it’s brought the community closer together.

“We as a community are trying to say, hey, there are good things we’ve done, we’ve come together as a community each time we’ve called for a sandbagging event, we’ve had 200-300 people come out,” says Mayor Gerry Thiessen. “We’ve had companies that have sponsored barbecues and pizza nights after the events.”

But despite the cameraderie, he says a meeting the District held Wednesday night showed how exhausting the flood has been for residents.

“You just saw the length of the flood on the people’s faces.”

Thiessen, who’s was lived in Vanderhoof almost all of his life, says it’s been one of the worst in memory.

“It’s tough to compare, it might be the worst. For some people it’s been the worst. What we’ve seen is the river has changed in the last eight years,” he said. “We have seen this year that a lot of places that did not flood in 2007 are flooding today.”

He hopes residents will be out of the woods within the next few weeks.

“Probably the first week of July. It’s really going to depend on rain and weather systems that come into the Nechako reservoir area which is controlled by Rio Tinto Alcan,” says Thiessen.

“If a lot of rain goes into that water shed that could make the whole process a lot longer than what were are currently looking at.”