Firstly, I hope the local residents of B.C. are safe during these unfortunate circumstances.
We tentatively planned to do a land border crossing from Seattle via Peace Arch in the first week of December. We have our flight and accommodation booked, but with the recent unfortunate events in British Columbia, we are wondering if it would still be possible to go ahead with our plan.
Specifically, we have the following questions:
1)Firstly, can border crossing still be done through Peace Arch?
2)We planned to stay in Mission and Surrey (for two different nights), but not entirely sure about the situation in the two areas. Is it still possible to move around the Greater Vancouver region?
3)Are house tours (renting/buying) still going on in the Greater Vancouver Area (Abbotsford, Surrey, Langley, etc.)?
I’d be thankful if anyone in the area or someone who’s got any knowledge of the recent events could provide some insight as it would tremendously help our landing plan. Thank you.
I’m not in mainland BC, so I can’t vouch for the situation there but to the best of my understanding the main problem currently is with highways being washed out that connect BC’s interior to the lower mainland. There has been minimal impact on roads and infrastructure in the Greater Vancouver area, except the Sumas Prairie area in Abbotsford which was badly flooded (from the news I gather that the situation is getting better but there is another weather system forecast for later this week, so depending on the actual intensity and location things might change again)
Life is pretty much normal in the Vancouver metro area as it is on Vancouver Island. The border is absolutely open and you should have no problems driving through. Gas is being rationed to 30 litres per trip, so best fill up before coming in. Other than that you should have no problems with your trip.
Awesome! Thank you for clarifying. We were anxious if we had to cancel our flight tickets and rebook our accommodation.
Just one question though - about highways being washed out that connect BC’s interior to the lower mainland, does that also include the roadways from places like Surrey/Maple Ridge/Mission to core Vancouver city? Basically, I wanted to see how the commute would be from a rental place, so I was wondering if we could simulate it during our stay.
Search for BC Flood in Google maps and you will find details of the area impacted due to flood. I doubt Surrey or Vancouver roads are blocked due to floods.