Less than two weeks after moving into their new rental home, a family of five is living in a motel, with no idea of when they might be able to move back home.
Tracey Blyan said she was woken by the sound of her dog barking around 2 a.m. this morning.
“He’s not a barker and he started barking like crazy,” she said, on the phone with The News. “I knew something was wrong.”
Next, she heard the rush of water outside her home from what turned out to be a broken water main gushing gallon upon gallon of water into the yard beside the home on the corner of Marshall Road and Jackson Street.
She could hear her nephew screaming downstairs.
The five residents and Blyan’s niece, who was visiting for the weekend, rushed outside to see a fast-forming lake pouring into the basement, eventually reaching roughly four feet high.
The family had no renter’s insurance and hadn’t even finished unpacking after moving into the home on Oct. 15.
Blyan’s 16-year-old son and 22-year-old nephew, whose bedrooms were downstairs, have lost all their belongings, she said.
Emergency Social Services have put the family up in a hotel until Monday morning but the family does not know what they will do after that.
A GoFundMe page has been started for the family and those wishing to help in other ways can contact Tracey Blyan by phone at (778) 779-2685.
The cause of the water main break is not known at this time.
Check back here for updates as they emerge and pick up a copy of Wednesday’s Abbotsford News for a full account of the incident.
