'Huge relief' for Yukon couple returning home after flood

A Yukon couple, forced from their home last month by rising flood waters, is now taking stock of the damage and making plans to move back.

"It's a huge relief and things are looking up," said Andrea Lemphers on Wednesday, a few days after an evacuation order was lifted for their Shallow Bay property on Lake Laberge. 

When Andrea and Florian Lemphers left their property last month, they weren't sure they'd ever be able to return to their home of 38 years. Sandbags were piled high all around, but it wasn't clear how high the water would ultimately go.

Dozens of properties around Lake Laberge and Yukon's Southern Lakes spent weeks under an evacuation alert, but the Lemphers were the only ones ordered to leave their property.

The water is now dropping and the alerts were rescinded a week ago. The evacuation order for the Lemphers property stayed in place for a few more days.

Now they need to figure out what needs to be done before moving back. 

"The groundwater rose from beneath, through the ground and up into our crawl spaces, and it's affected our septic system. We have to get that assessed to make sure that it's operational," said Florian.

"So we can't live in here, obviously. We can visit, and until it's all remediated we can't live here."

Florian says they hope to be back in their home by winter. In the meantime, he says they're spread out between three different places — living in temporary accommodations in Porter Creek, with some of their stuff in a storage unit and some at a friend's place.

"It's going to be like Christmas when we have to open all these packages again — we probably forget what's in all of them!" Florian said.

The Lemphers are now focused on moving back home, but Florian says he's also thinking about the long term. This year's flooding in southern Yukon was the worst in recent memory but he worries that climate change means it could become more common.

"Whether you're in Shallow Bay or Bangladesh or Greenland or the Antarctic ice cap, these changes are happening. We have to prepare for them as best as we can," he said.

He's thinking about ways to better protect his home from any future flooding, for example, with permanent sump pumps installed outside of the house.

In the meantime, they'll focus on making their home livable once again. They're grateful that it's even a possibility — and say they can thank all the people who volunteered their time to help fill sandbags and protect their house.

"Without them, I think we probably would have been in much more dire straits," Andrea said.

"It's like the old Beatles song — we got by with a lot of help from our friends," Florian said.

"It was an amazing, amazing group of people that showed up, and we're eternally grateful for them for doing so."