UPDATE: Earlier today, BC Hydro crews arrived at the RV park in Surrey, where Lillian Bailey lives, to fix the hydro problem by installing a new transformer.
After Global’s story yesterday, the CEO of BC Hydro and the Surrey city manager got involved and hydro crews were on the property today.
The RV park is for sale, and while the owners say they aren’t trying to remove the remaining eight tenants, most of them, including Bailey, say they are looking for a new place to live.
“I didn’t ever want to leave here and now I do,” Bailey says. “It’s too cold and too noisy and being in the dark, it’s just too much.”
Hydro says the power should be restored by tonight or tomorrow.
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Residents in a Surrey trailer park have been without power for two and a half months. Some people have left but for others, like 88-year-old Lillian Bailey who has lived there for 22 years, she has nowhere to go.
More than two months ago, Bailey and the other residents in the Beladean Trailer Park lost their power, heat, electricity and telephone service when a demolition worker accidentally cut the lines to the property. The owner of the property is providing gas and propane for generators, which they only gave Bailey and the residents two weeks ago.
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It’s been 10 weeks without the hydro lines being fixed and with a cold snap on the way, Bailey is living in misery.
“It’s just been a terrible, terrible time not only for me but for everybody else too,” Bailey says. “It’s got people on edge, their nerves are going, I know mine is.
“I got so cold in the last two months before the generator came that even when I do get warm, I’m still shaking.”
Bailey is a retired customs officer and she says she used to love living in her RV park but since new owners took over three years ago, she’s watched it go downhill, calling it a “wasteland.”
Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts calls this situation “unacceptable” and said the city’s been in touch with BC Hydro and asked the power be reconnected until some sort of relocation plan can be put in place.
“Usually with older mobile parks, there needs to be a relocation plan and obviously this owner has not done that yet,” Mayor Watts told Global News. “And the land is, yet again, up for sale. So we’ll be calling him into city hall and having a discussion with him.”
From the mayor’s perspective, it’s a situation of the residents and owner going back and forth, with the owner making assurances that hydro will be restored, and yet, they’re still powerless.
Global News reporter Randene Neill went looking for the owner of the RV park and at first, was told he wasn’t there. Trying again, Neill found the man who was telling her the owner was unavailable, was actually one of the owners.
With eight people still living on his RV park, Suvash Chander says “everything we’re doing for them,” and “we applied for BC Hydro to give them a connection” but essentially it’s “out of his hands.”
When asked if he’ll be helping the residents, in particular Bailey, relocate he said, “no, why should I do that?” Chander went on to say they’re trying to accommodate them but ultimately their hands are tied.
At this point, Chander nor the city can say when the RV park’s hydro will be reconnected but regardless, Bailey knows at 88-years-old, she’ll have to move.
“At this age, this was my home and I thought I’d die here, ” she says.
“If I was 50, I would have been able to cope with it but now, my nerves are shot.”
An online fundraiser has been started for Lillian Bailey to help her get into a new manufactured home.
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