Preparedness and progress remained focus-points at Tuesday’s Boundary Flood Recovery update meeting.
Recovery Team Information Officer Cavan Gates says there are preparedness events coming up:
“Some of them involve food like a pancake breakfast or brunch, and perhaps some hot-dogs depending on who we can get on board, so we’re looking forward to that and of course some of the more important pieces there which is some demonstrations on sandbagging for example.”
Those go April 12th and 13th, and could also feature Fire Smart representatives as well as general preparedness themes both for fire and flood. Debris removal is continuing along rivers with 2 trucks recently being removed. You’re urged to contact the team or upload a photo to the Lightship app to report any other garbage or debris. There’s also consideration of another clean-up party this fall. Paul Edmonds with the Recovery Team has been working on a Flood Response Plan which involves emergency triggers, a projected flood model, and weather monitoring.
He says as of March 15th the snow-pack was 64% of normal:
“It has been very good up to this point, I don’t want to be the doom-sayer but I work in emergencies so I always look at worst-case scenarios, but looking at the facts: 64% of snow-pack, the rivers are rising the last few days, let’s just be aware of what’s going on.”
Sites and neighbourhoods have been surveyed to see what can be protected with measures such as sandbags, tiger dams, and more. The Regional District has more sandbags than ever before to start this freshet season, with 130,000 on hand. Concerns were raised during the question and answer period regarding a fall-back plan in case property buyouts don’t go through. This as the Recovery Team has yet to hear back from January’s 49.9 million dollar ask to the province. Mayor Brian Taylor says initially council needed to proceed with and focus on Plan A.
He says he echoes the communities frustration:
“I can tell you now that council is struggling with looking at the possibility of a plan B, so we’re starting to review things from the beginning and I think there’s enthusiasm from council to dive into the details of Plan A, but to also come up with a plan B.”
The McRae Creek project is also wrapped up; more on that to come. To read about the last Boundary Flood Recovery update meeting click here.