A landslide early warning system is being implemented to protect lives in the Two Mile neighbourhood of Sicamous, but the regional district has no plans to build any of the proposed landslide mitigation infrastructure.
The area is considered to be at high risk of a post-wildfire landslide in 2022 or 2023 after the Two Mile Road wildfire burnt upslope from the neighbourhood last summer.
So as the spring melt starts — a high-risk time for slides — some residents are on edge and calling for more to be done.
“We are pretty disappointed in our government for the fact that they won’t help us out,” said Art Jones.
His wife Wendy Jones agrees.
“It is a disappointment. We put our life savings into our homes and to have them all floating away down to the lake is very disheartening,” Wendy Jones said.
“We are kind of sitting ducks at (this) point. Nothing we can really do about it, but just be prepared.”
The pair live in the Sicamous Creek Mobile Home Park, where officials are particularly concerned a slide could do damage.
The couple say they can’t afford to move and can’t get insurance coverage for landslides due to the risk.
They are now proactively moving their motorhome and boat away from the area.
Wendy Jones says she is feeling scared headed into freshet.
“I feel bad for everybody in here. It is just really unnerving to lay in bed at night and hear funny noises and thinking, ‘OK, is it happening now?.’ It’s scary. It really is scary to know that everything could be wiped away including yourself,” she said.
Early warning system to be operational in April
An early warning system, physical mitigation infrastructure or moving the mobile homes were all possible options to address the slide risk identified in a January engineering report.
An early warning system is being set up and is expected to be up and running by the start of April.
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The Columbia Shuswap Regional District announced this week it received provincial funding for a $30,000 software system that will use weather data to alert local emergency officials if evacuation orders or alerts are needed.
“I’m quite pleased that at least we have a way of saying, ‘OK, this is what we are seeing. This is what we need to do,” said Sicamous fire Chief Brett Ogino.
“We want to be able to give the residents some heads-up. This summer (during the fire) we were not able to give them that alert. It was a tactical evacuation which was basically grab your stuff and get out as quickly as you can.”
Ogino said the regional district is not planning to build mitigation infrastructure due to the short timeline and the cost involved.
“One of (the options) was over $3 million to put in a water control berm up above the community. Trying to get funding for it was essentially turned down,” said Ogino.
“Another one was a debris catchment … just above the trailer court area, but again, purchasing land to be able to enable that, and also the effectiveness of it was a big concern.”
The engineering report did recommend building a debris basin and berm, or simply a debris basin on its own, as possible options to deal with the landslide risk.
But the report also highlighted a variety of challenges with both projects.
The report said the deflection berm and basin would likely cost $3.2 million to build and even in a best-case scenario, where all the permitting for the project was quickly approved, wouldn’t be built till June 2022.
The debris basin on its own at a lower elevation would cost around $1.4 million to build, require intense construction near a residential area and the purchase of privately owned land, and might not work well for a more serious slide.
“Time … was a critical factor. It is anticipated over the next two years will be our critical time for debris flow and flooding potential. Spending $3 million-plus on a debris catchment that is good for a couple of years, there is not much taste for that, unfortunately,” Ogino said.
The fire chief said there was also not much appetite among residents for moving the trailers, as many would be difficult to move.
Asked about what he would say to those who feel more should be done, Ogino pointed out that many areas of B.C. burned last year and will likely be affected by post-fire debris flows.
“In a perfect world with unlimited money we would love to be able to put in the berm and the catchment basin based on the recommendations, but it’s who is going to pay for that?” Ogino said.
The early warning system that is being set up will cover not just the mobile home park by Wiseman Creek, but also the area around Sicamous Creek and Hummingbird Creek.
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