Open this photo in gallery The community of Grand Forks, B.C., is among the hardest hit by flooding. Kayla Sebastian

Emergency officials in British Columbia’s southern Interior will ask the provincial government to call in the military as heavy rains and melting snow have put thousands of homes at risk from the worst flooding in decades.

The request for help comes as an increasing list of evacuation orders and flood warnings reached the Vancouver region, with the Township of Langley, about 50 kilometres east of the city, issuing an evacuation alert on Tuesday and several properties in Chilliwack, farther to the east in the Fraser Valley, ordered to evacuate.

About 2,000 homes in B.C. were under evacuation orders on Tuesday, most in the southern Interior, where another 2,600 were on evacuation alert.

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The community of Grand Forks is among the hardest hit. Chris Marsh of the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary, which includes Grand Forks, said the district was putting together a request for military help.

Open this photo in gallery Volunteers fill sandbags for residents to protect their homes from flooding in Osoyoos, B.C., on Sunday. DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press

“It’s not a decision we take lightly, but I think we have reached the point where we feel we could use those resources effectively on the ground,” said Mr. Marsh, the director of the emergency operations centre in Grand Forks.

“The Kettle, the West Kettle and the Granby Rivers are all running very high right now,” he said, adding that projections call for increases in water levels due to unseasonably high temperatures and rain over the next three days.

Related: B.C. braces for second surge of floodwaters

Read more: New Brunswick starts long and costly flood cleanup

About 60 members of the Armed Forces, including combat engineers and engineering officers, were sent to New Brunswick this month to help with flood recovery there.

The alert in Langley covered the unprotected flood plains of Northwest Langley and Glen Valley, as well as Brae and McMillan islands. An alert posted to the township’s website noted that water levels had reached 5.5 metres on Tuesday.

It was the first evacuation alert of the 2018 flood season for any community near Metro Vancouver.

Open this photo in gallery Grand Forks search and rescue volunteer Andrs Dean floats a rescued cat to safety on Sunday. Grand Forks SAR

Ramin Seifi, general engineering manager for the Township of Langley, said it was the first such measure since 2012, when flooding led to an order affecting 260 properties.

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“Based on the projections, we’re looking at localized flooding in the flood plain in unprotected areas in the township,” Mr. Seifi said in an interview.

Residents in the Kootenay Boundary region were granted some reprieve early in the week as floodwaters receded, but Kevin McKinnon, with the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary, said rising water levels in the Ruckle neighbourhood along the Granby River, just north of the Canada-U.S. border, mark “the start of round two.”

Brett Swope, pastor at the Grand Forks Baptist Church, said roads that were dry on Monday were already submerged again on Tuesday.

“Some forecasts are calling for [water levels] to be higher, others are calling for [them] to be just lower than we had recently, but everybody’s just sort of bracing for the impact and trying to do everything they can to be prepared,″ he said.

Roly Russell, regional director for Area D – rural Grand Forks outside the city limits – said the time has come to call in the military. “We feel like, as of today, we have got to a point where that request is now legitimate.”

Kelowna Alta. B.C. Okanagan Lake Detail B.C. Vancouver U.S. Beaverdell Okanagan Falls Kettle River West Kettle River Keremeos Granby River Okanagan River Similkameen River Grand Forks Osoyoos Midway 0 10 U.S. KM MURAT YÜKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: TILEZEN; OPENSTREETMAP CONTRIBUTORS; HIU Alta. Kelowna B.C. Okanagan Lake Detail B.C. Vancouver U.S. Beaverdell Okanagan Falls Kettle River West Kettle River Keremeos Granby River Okanagan River Similkameen River Grand Forks Midway Osoyoos 0 10 U.S. KM MURAT YÜKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: TILEZEN; OPENSTREETMAP CONTRIBUTORS; HIU Alta. Kelowna B.C. Detail Okanagan Lake Vancouver U.S. B.C. Beaverdell Okanagan Falls Kettle River West Kettle River Keremeos Granby River Okanagan River Similkameen River Osoyoos Grand Forks Midway 0 10 U.S. KM MURAT YÜKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: TILEZEN; OPENSTREETMAP CONTRIBUTORS; HIU

When floodwaters began soaking Grand Forks, B.C., Kayla Sebastian and her husband hurried to a friend’s home, at a lower elevation, to help with the frantic sandbagging efforts. It was shortly after sunrise and there was already four feet of water indoors.

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Later that morning, Ms. Sebastian went downtown to the popular restaurant she owns to close up shop and pack dozens of muffins and sandwiches for those helping with flood efforts. Downtown seemed to have been spared at that moment – perhaps they would open up again the next day, she thought.

“Well, about an hour later, it started creeping up [across] the street, so we had to start sandbagging,” Ms. Sebastian said. “By noon, it was up the street and coming over the sidewalk, under the bags.”

About 30 people – family, friends and complete strangers – pumped water around the clock for three days, until the water receded. About six feet of water flooded the basement, ruining supplies, but the restaurant’s main floor remained intact.

“There are about four businesses downtown out of 50 that didn’t get knee-high to thigh-high water in them, just because we had so many people on deck trying to save the bistro,” Ms. Sebastian said.

With a report from The Canadian Press