Merritt, B.C. still without water, treatment plant as city remains evacuated

The City of Merritt said it is bringing in trained inspectors to begin doing a rapid damage assessment of properties directly affected by the flooding earlier this week.

The entire city remains on evacuation order and the timeline for when residents can return remains unclear.

The city said following the assessment, homes will be tagged as green, yellow, or red.

Only those with homes tagged green will be able to return to collect possessions and begin remediation efforts.

Further instructions will come about homes tagged yellow and red.

3:00 Hundreds of residents defy evacuation order in flood-ravaged Merritt, B.C.

Crews are still conducting inspections and tests on the drinking water system and the city said they hope to pressurize some sections of the system soon, in areas that were not directly affected by flooding.

That will also help planning for the partial rescinding of the evacuation order for areas of the city not directly affected, once the critical infrastructure comes back online, the city said in the statement.

Sanitary lines are currently being flushed to remove debris in lines and to allow flow back to the wastewater treatment plant.

The city said it is also launching a call centre for residents to help provide information and has been in contact with Emergency Management BC to provide additional support for evacuees.

“Our community has been devastated and everyone right now is going through heartbreak and a whole lot of fear of not knowing what is next,” Merritt Mayor Linda Brown said Wednesday.

Brown said there are more than 575 area homes still underwater. All 7,000 residents were ordered to evacuate the city Monday after flooding from the Coldwater River caused the complete failure of the municipality’s wastewater treatment plant.

–With files from Kathy Michaels