Rod Nickel, Julie Gordon, and Nichola Sainather

OTTAWA (Reuters), Canada’s warehouses are overflowing after the flooding in British Columbia, which disrupted supply chains already severely stressed, left critical railway and road lines unusable.

After an atmospheric flood brought two weeks worth of rain to the Pacific coast, roads between Vancouver’s port (Canada’s busiest) and the rest the country remain suspended for the next week.

Canadian Pacific Railways (NYSE:) will resume normal service on Tuesday. Canadian National Railways (TSX) expects to reopen for limited traffic on Wednesday.

In the meantime, shippers are looking for additional storage and alternative routes to transport key components of their manufacturing processes. Retail Council of Canada estimates that disruptions could cause significant damage to businesses ahead of busy holiday shopping seasons. But Christmas will not be completely destroyed.

Greg Wilson (Director of B.C. Retail Council of Canada’s government relations, suggesting that consumers might need to compromise on what they want.

Natural disasters such as floods and forest fires expose Canada’s supply chains vulnerabilities. This puts pressure on manufacturers and retailers already struggling with global supply chain problems.

18 Wheels Logistics is a Vancouver warehousing, trucking, and logistics company that has filled its entire storage area with alcohol, parts, and other goods. The company signed another lease covering 180,000 square footage, which is the equivalent of 2 city blocks to meet increased demand.

Adrian Wen, Chief Executive of the Company said that “it’s quite an amount to take on.”

Wen’s business also helps to reroute trucks carrying perishable goods or high-demand automotive parts over the Washington State border. It uses a less direct route that leads to Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and farther east.

For a company that relies on 350 drivers, the trip will take two additional days.

Local officials have estimated that the infrastructure costs and emergency costs of flooding alone are more than C$1billion ($787 million). This does not account for the impact on farmers, retailers, and other businesses.

Volume Freight, a logistics company, said that it had secured Vancouver storage for the trapped goods, including tires and furniture, and has begun to arrange for trucks to transport the product via the United States to other provinces. This is an expensive endeavor.

“Right Now, everybody is sitting and waiting… Everybody’s just in the limbo,” explained Chief Operating Officer Danica Saborin. He added that even though rail lines will reopen soon, delays can last several weeks because of backlog.

Vancouver’s Port, which handles about C$240 Billion of goods per year, stated that anchorage demand was “high” and is nearing its capacity for all types of vessels.

A driver for Lipsett Cartage was left with his truck full of 94,000 lb steel at Kamloops in British Columbia, just north of flooding.

Although the company flew its driver home from Regina, it was unable make one shipment from Vancouver this week. This is something that happens every 10 weeks.

Zoe Lipsett is the office manager. We’re at the breaking point, and companies are calling us asking how we can fix it.

The floods have cut Progress Luv2Pak’s Toronto-based selling of shopping bags, from their two containers at Vancouver Port.

According to President Ben Hertzman, Progress must find an alternate route for the shipment to arrive east even if they are freed.

“I’m pretty numb to it by this point. “I wake up each morning expecting that there will be more chaos in my supply chain,” he stated.

($1 = 1.2700 Canadian dollars)