The province has approved financial assistance for those in the Cowichan Valley impacted by floodwaters.

Public Safety Minister Kash Heed made the announcement about 5 p.m. Friday.

“Record rainfall has caused rivers and waterways to rise to flood levels in some communities on Vancouver Island,” Heed said in a release. “We are approving disaster financial assistance for those impacted areas.”

Municipal officials called a state of emergency early Friday morning, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people as floodwaters caused one of Cowichan’s biggest disasters in decades.

Volunteers were busy sandbagging areas in and around Duncan while the Island Savings Centre opened to help people ordered to evacuate their homes.

Flooding of the Cowichan and Koksilah Rivers prompted the state of emergency declaration by North Cowichan, Duncan and Cowichan Tribes officials about 6 a.m. Friday.

About 300 homes were evacuated by early Friday afternoon.

“We’ve had extremely high levels of rain and the ground had been saturated over the past few day and high tides meant the rains haven’t drained away,” said Mark Ruttan, director of administration for North Cowichan and public information officer for the flooding incident.

That evacuation order was issued for the following areas: Beverly Street from the Lakes Road round-a-bout, west to Claire Street; all of Heather Street and Claire Street and Campbell Street east at Trunk Road to the Cowichan River.

An evacuation alert was also issued for the area on Chesterfield from the Sportsplex to Beverly Street.

Regional officials said the priority for work crews was sandbagging and temporarily diking the perimeter of the Beverly-Lakes Road area to hold floodwaters back.

High water on the Cowichan and Koksilah rivers is being blamed for the flooding, regional brass said.

“We were informed by Environment Canada we’ve had substantially more precipitation than normal events and combined with a high tide situation, (that’s) what’s responsible for this,” said Duncan Mayor Phil Kent during a 2 p.m. Friday joint press conference at the Cowichan Valley Regional District boardroom that included North Cowichan Mayor Tom Walker, Ruttan, Jim Dias, chief administrative officer for North Cowichan and John MacKay, incident commander.

Walker said provincial officials said the valley received about 150-mm of “above normal rain” in the last seven days.

Added Kent: “We are dealing with something of a perfect storm with the high tides and the extra precipitation levels.”

“It’s our understanding that none of the dikes had been breached, specifically,” said the mayor, who noted the high water actually went around the dikes.

MacKay said when his crews arrived on scene, they were greeted by millions of gallons of water on the roadways.

“There was water pouring across Lakes Road, coming along Tzouhalem Road, turning the corner at Lakes Road, running along Lakes into some farmland then running into residential areas on Beverly Street and flooded homes,” he said.

“We built a sandbag dike along the middle of Lakes Road to cut the flow of water, which we have done (and) we’re reinforcing some existing dikes, raising them a bit more and we’re pumping from the residential side to the flood side trying to dry out these homes,” said MacKay, who noted some houses were so hard hit the water rose “to the mail slots on the doors.”

For those who suffered flood damage and file acceptable DFA claims, the program covers up to 80 per cent of the portion of a claim exceeding $1,000, to a maximum of $300,000.

Local governments are also eligible for DFA.

As of Friday night, officials said the worst appeared to be over.

“The river is receding and precipitation is predicted to be lower than it has been,” said Kent.

Officials asked that drivers obey the barricades on closed roads and not try to get around them.

“There’s always people who decide to go through the barricades and that’s a problem because vehicles have been getting stuck,” said Ruttan.

“So we’re asking for continued patience and cooperation.”

This story will be updated throughout the weekend at www.cowichannewsleader.com, on 89.7 SunFM, or call 250-746-2561.

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The following roads were closed as of Friday night:

• Tzouhalem Road between Jaynes and Lakes Roads

• Lakes Road between Beverly Street and Tzouhalem

• Beverly Street between Lakes Road and York

• Canada Avenue from Philip to Sherman round a bout

• Trunk Road from Olsen to lakes Road

• Campbell Street/Prevost/Lomas

• Marchmont to Campbell East

• Philips to Mary Street

• Tzouhalem Road to Cowichan Bay Road

• Portions of Cowichan Bay Road

• Dike building is occurring on Lakes Road from round a bout to Duncan Works yard

Traffic from Maple Bay is requested to detour along Herd Road or Osbourne Bay Road.