Twice-displaced Abbotsford woman calls for more disaster supports

After rising floodwaters forced Danielle Rayner to evacuate her rented townhouse in Abbotsford, B.C., in November 2021, she says she still had faith she could rebuild her life.

But just six months later, the Abbotsford condo building she had hoped would be her new "safe haven" was consumed by a massive fire that killed one of her beloved cats and is now the subject of more than a dozen lawsuits.

"PTSD is an understatement," Rayner, a grandmother, told CBC News in an interview. "It was like the straw that broke the camel's back. I thought I was strong and then that happened."

Two years later, Rayner says losing two homes in a row has devastated her finances, sense of security and mental and physical health.

She's calling for the provincial government to provide more long-term housing and mental health supports for people forced from their homes by disaster, as she's worried for thousands of others displaced each year who find what she said were "inadequate" resources.

And one expert says short and long-term mental health care is "vital" when responding to disasters, particularly as climate-driven events are expected to intensify and displace more and more people.

Rayner says it's not just people who were displaced, and a building that burned down.

"It's my brain and my heart that feel like they're displaced," she said, adding that her two surviving cats, Pickles and Diamond, are also grieving.

First floods, then fire

Like thousands of others in Abbotsford and the Sumas Prairie, approaching floodwaters forced Rayner to evacuate her townhouse with her three cats in November 2021.

The retail manager says her landlord paid for her to stay at a nearby hotel for a couple nights until, the city's emergency operations shelter gave her a voucher to cover the room and three meals a day for nearly a month.

But after the floodwaters receded, the unit was no longer safe to live in, due to electrical damage and mould, according to an inspection report and photos Rayner shared with CBC News. 

She says she didn't have tenants insurance for her furniture and other possessions that were damaged beyond repair.

Rayner says she used a $2,000 one-time provincial payment administered by the Red Cross to cover the damage deposit on the new condo, which she moved into in December, and Rayner says a woman donated furniture to her through a local thrift store.

But early on May 3, 2022, Rayner says she was getting ready for work in her new place when she heard a big bang right outside the top-floor balcony.

"I looked outside and there was a fire coming up the side of the building," she said.

"I just blanked out and screamed at the top of my lungs 'fire' and ran out into the hallways screaming 'fire,' trying to get as many people awake as possible."

Rayner was among 160 residents forced from their homes by the fire, which she says sent her to hospital with smoke inhalation and killed one of her cats, Jack-Jack. His body was found under her bed in the rubble, she told CBC News, while her two other cats escaped but suffered smoke inhalation.

"I lost everything trying to save everyone and everything," said Rayner.

She is one of more than 20 former residents who are now suing three ex-neighbours, the city, fire department, builder, property management company and fire protection contractor over alleged negligence they claim contributed to the "catastrophic" fire at the condo building. None of the allegations have been tested or proven in court.

Rayner told CBC News she stayed with a friend the night of the fire and received about $300 from the Red Cross for incidentals, but she did not have tenants insurance to cover a hotel or other costs.

She says she struggled for over a year to find an affordable place to live, staying with friends and family until she found her current place, which costs about $300 more each month. 

Rayner says she is still in debt and she only recently started counselling for her grief and trauma because she could not previously afford it.

"The anxiety never goes away. I smell smoke and I hear a fire alarm and I panic, my cats still panic and run to me and hide," she said.

Mental health impacts persist: expert

Rayner says more and longer-term support is needed to prevent evacuees from facing the same challenges she has, including free counselling and extending emergency accommodation services to building fires as well as climate disasters.

Jonny Morris, CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association's B.C. division, says supporting people both during an emergency and after is key to resilience, especially as many in communities who have experienced disasters feel "anticipatory grief" — even after the disaster is over or another has begun.

"The mental health impacts of displacement or disaster persist … some research showing up to seven years after the event, the mental health and substance use impacts can still be felt," Morris told CBC News on Thursday.

"We cannot leave the mental health impacts out of the equation."

The B.C. Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness says the province works with local emergency centres to provide accommodation, food and clothing to displaced people, including deploying disaster psychological support teams for evacuees and responders in affected communities.

Health Emergency Management B.C., managed by the Provincial Health Services Authority, is also "working to create a more resilient health-care system that can effectively mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from the impacts of emergency events," according to its website.

That includes psychological first aid with a "holistic, community" approach to health, said a ministry spokesperson in an email to CBC News last week.

People in the Fraser Valley can also call the Fraser Health Crisis line 24/7 for mental health and substance use concerns or the health authority's virtual care line every day from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., said the spokesperson.

The ministry also highly recommended renters in B.C. buy tenants insurance to cover costs in an emergency, and that there are affordable housing spaces and rent supplements available for people looking for long-term housing.

Rayner says her lawsuit isn't about the money, but she hopes by suing and speaking out she can press for more supports for others who are displaced, and for closure over the fire to help her own healing.

"It wasn't just a building, it was lives, human and animal," said Rayner.  "We were people in there."