Nooaitch First Nation member Ko’waintco Michel has been separated from her family for four days.
The only bridges leading to her community in southern British Columbia collapsed on Monday, under the weight of floods and debris generated by two days of torrential rain.
“I left the community to go into town to gather a few things,” she told Global News.
“I was only gone maybe a couple of hours. When I got down to the turnoff where our bridge goes into our community, it already had fallen.”
Between Nov. 14 and 15, an atmospheric river drenched the southern part of the province, swallowing houses, cars and critical infrastructure.
One person has died, four people are missing, and thousands have been displaced.
Nooaitch First Nation is in the Southern Interior of B.C., roughly 20 kilometres west of Merritt.
When Michel left the community on Monday, she was uncertain whether the band would order an evacuation. She left for Merritt with her two sons just before the bridges collapsed.
“The first thing that came to my mind … was I wasn’t going to see the rest of my family, and I thought when will I ever seen them again?” the Nla’kapamux Nation health governance representative told Global News.
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“We all stood up in a corner, looked down and we seen the bridge half in the water. We were just standing there in shock. Pretty emotional at that time.”
Michel and her sons have been staying at a Trans Mountain work camp in Merritt, but about 130 people at Nooaitch First Nation are now locked in — some without power and dwindling supplies.
About a third of them are children.
The damage to Highway 8 is extensive and the community has reported at least four homes were destroyed by the floods.
Michel said she’s grateful to have contacted her husband, since her niece has a power generator.
Helicopters have flown in to evacuate those who lost their homes or need medical attention, and crews are working on restoring one of three bridges to the community, she added.
“I thought that wasn’t going to happen for a long time. Hopefully I can go home.”
Meanwhile, Nooaitch First Nation is pooling resources, cooking for each other, and even celebrating birthdays. The same thing is happening at the Trans Mountain camp, she added, where members of different First Nations have been stranded.
The flood waters are receding at Nooaitch and Michel is hopeful she’ll be able to hug her family soon.
The province and federal government must act now to curb the climate crisis, she added, so disasters like this don’t become the new normal.
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