Entire farms and acres of land were washed down the Nicola River last week by flood waters, destroying retirement plans and family homes for many living along Highway 8 between Merritt and Spences Bridge.

Flooding has caused significant damage to numerous cities in Southern B.C., but none have been hit quite as hard as the Highway 8 corridor, said Steven Rice, the TNRD director for the area.

“They’ve got problems, Merritt's got problems, but all those people, they all have jobs next year, we don't have jobs,” Rice said. “We don't get to go back, I don't get to get in the hothouse and plant my 5,000 tomato plants. They don't get to do their hay, they don't get to have their cattle.”

Rice said a lot of people don’t realize most of the residents in the area live off the land and its their only source of income.

Many of the residents in the area also planned on retiring there.

“A lot of us have been here for decades and now Mother Nature says ‘hey, you're going to start over,’" Rice told Castanet Kamloops.

“We're in our 60's and 70's some of us, we're not really looking to start over, so it's been devastating.”

Several farmers and residents from along the highway evacuated to Spences Bridge.

Rice said close bonds have formed between residents and evacuees.

"You become family really early, we’ve only known the evacuees for a short time, or knowing them well,” he said. “And we're now a family, so that's rural for you.”

Highway 8 between Spences Bridge and Merritt will be closed for the foreseeable future. Six kilometres of the road are simply gone. Rice said rebuild planning has already begun but it will still be a long wait until the community is back on its feet.

The Canadian Armed Forces has been airlifting food to the area, while helicopters airlifted livestock out. A woman from the area also remains missing, believed to be washed away with her home when she wasn't able to evacuate. In addition to the highway, BC Hydro says 75 power poles were also washed away.