Port Coquitlam to review atmospheric river response [Video]

Ken Swain has a major mess on his hands.

His front yard is strewn with ruined mattresses and other furniture.

“I’d say two and a half, three feet of water went through the whole house,” Swain told CTV News outside his Port Coquitlam home. “Two laundry rooms flooded, two bedrooms downstairs, two rec rooms flooded, two bathrooms flooded, showers.”

Adding to the misery: this is the second time swain has experienced a major flood in this house.

Along with his son, they had just renovated the downstairs area.

“They got a culvert down there that’s only five feet high that the water runs through,” Swain said in reference to the city’s infrastructure. “You need at least a 10-foot-high culvert down there. If that culvert was higher, that water would whoosh through.”

Swain is far from alone with the owners of 45 properties making “calls for service” to the city in relation to the atmospheric river.

And Mayor Brad West …