In the end, the best flood models — and hours of gruelling work — couldn’t stop the water.

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The sandbags surrounding Matt Dykshoorn’s chicken barns couldn’t save thousands of his birds from drowning.

‘Frustrating and defeating’: More rain in forecast as Abbotsford surveys flood damage Back to video

The consequences of the decision he made to keep his dairy herd at home, instead of shuttling the cows off to higher ground, wouldn’t be known until hours after the floodwater reached his barn doors late Thursday and began to seep inside.

On Friday, his farm surrounded by water, Dykshoorn was waiting for it to recede so cleanup could begin. Two sleepless nights threatened to turn into many more.

Asked how he was feeling, the farmer said the experience was both “frustrating and defeating.”

“We spent the last four years picking up and rebuilding, and now we’re looking at doing it again,” he said. “This makes it really hard to invest back into the farm. You wonder what for? We’re just going to drown again.”

At a news conference Friday morning, Lana Popham, B.C. agriculture minister, said many cows and hogs were relocated from 68 farms in the evacuation zone in Abbotsford on Thursday, but some poultry farms were lost. She didn’t release the numbers to spare farmers who were dealing with trauma.

Kelly Greene, B.C. minister of emergency management, said it will be a challenging week ahead with more rain in the forecast.

With 450 properties still on evacuation order and about 1,700 on evacuation alert, “it’s been 72 hours of tireless work to keep people safe,” she said.

The Nooksack River peaked Thursday afternoon and the water has started to recede, but the basin through the Sumas still needs to drain, said Dave Campbell, head of B.C.’s River Forecast Centre.

“It’s a very slow process. So this is something that really is going to take days to happen,” said Campbell. “Looking ahead into the next phase of things, we are seeing the potential for a stormy week ahead.”

He called the amount of rain on Sunday and Monday concerning, but there is uncertainty about how it will impact flooding.