The Canadian Red Cross says it’s spent or committed $5.2 million on flood relief and recovery in B.C., but Grand Forks officials say flood victims are still waiting for a buyout.
Last year, the city voted to buy out approximately 100 homes in the most high-risk flood-prone areas, but it is contingent on funding from higher levels of government.
Roly Russell, chair of the Regional District of Kootenay-Boundary (RDKB), said it’s still waiting for approval of a $50-million grant application to the federal government. It includes compensation for the buyout plan as well as flood mitigation projects like shoreline protection.
WATCH: A long road to recovery in Grand Forks (August 2018)
“There’s a lot of hope riding on what the outcome will be,” Russell told Global News in Grand Forks on Tuesday.
Russell said residents of at least 35 impacted households are still in interim housing. The uncertainty is causing stress and anxiety among local residents.
“One of the biggest challenges is the mental health impacts of this, everything from navigating insurances for businesses to trying to deal with uncertainty for homeowners who don’t know what the future holds for them,” he said.
“We are waiting on some very big grant applications that will dictate whether or not we can move ahead with a buyout for certain properties. Those sorts of impacts mean that you’ve got homeowners who are unsure whether they are going to be living in their house in five years.”
On Tuesday, the Red Cross announced the BC Floods Fund has reached a total of $7.2 million.
Seventy-one per cent of the funds raised have been used to provide 440 households and 100 small businesses and not-for-profits with financial assistance.
“Recovery from a disaster like this can take a long time, but I’ve seen just how strong this community is and I have no doubt that they will recover. We know this is a challenging time for many people so, alongside our partners, the Red Cross will continue to be there for the community on its path to recovery,” said Elysia Dempsey with Emergency Management BC.
WATCH: Grand Forks homes uninhabitable (June 2018)
Graham Watt, the flood recovery manager with the Regional District of Kootenay-Boundary, said some flood victims are still living in limbo.
“The biggest thing that we need right now is a certainty on funding,” he said. “We’ve got major proposals in to the federal and provincial governments to be able to help us out.”
Watt said they’re also working on a contingency plan if the funding for the buyouts doesn’t come through.
“Quite often communities take five, six, seven years after a major flood to implement new flood mitigation and buying out of neighbourhoods,” Watt said. “We’re just one year in here. I know it’s a challenging topic but there is obvious room for more work.”
Watt noted that flood victims in New Brunswick were quickly compensated after the 2018 floods and B.C. should work out a similar deal with the feds.
“Across Canada there is no unified emergency management and recovery framework and I think that we definitely need to look at better certainty going forward for what types of funding will be available and when,” he said.
Russell calls the floods a crisis the community has never experienced before.
“I can’t help but to think it is really excruciatingly difficult and there’s a lot of really complex stories, some people just left the community, left it all behind because they didn’t see that there was a sustainable future here, and some people are sticking it out.”
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