Still displaced nearly a year after catastrophic floods, a Merritt woman is sharing her frustrations with the municipality’s response to the disaster.
Inspections declared Jennifer Biddlecome’s home a “write-off,” but she’s still paying utilities, garbage and property tax bills for it, she told Global News.
“The city has said it could take upwards of two years before they would consider buying us out … Otherwise we just sit here and wait and collect more bills from the city.”
More than 7,000 Merritt residents were forced to evacuate in the midst of the triple atmospheric river event last November, which flooded the Coldwater River, collapsed a bridge and contributed to multiple dike failures.
The floods caused some $150 million in local damage according to City of Merritt’s website and five per cent of its population remains displaced.
Major repairs continue and the municipality said it’s working to supply temporary, subsidized housing for those who can’t return home.
In an interview, Merritt flood recovery manager Sean Strang said the city does not directly control property taxes and is legally required to calculate and bill for them.
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“We don’t necessarily have a way to waive property taxes, however we are encouraging homeowners who have had a reduction in property value to get a hold of BC Assessment and make sure that’s reflected on their property tax assessment,” he said.
Merritt has partnered with charitable organizations to pair residents in need with funding, he added. Meanwhile, it can dismiss utilities bills for some homeowners whose houses are uninhabitable.
“If they phone into the city, the utility bill gets reversed, cancelled and they won’t see any more utilities until they request to have the water service turned back on,” Strang said.
Since the disaster, Biddlecome has criticized the City of Merritt’s public communication on resources available to residents. Her house was uninsured and her financial future is in jeopardy, she said.
She doesn’t have the funds to rebuild nor is it clear whether building permits would be approved on her once water-sodden land. For that reason and others, she said she has also been unable to sell.
If Merritt obtains federal funding to rebuild a preventative dike whose building path cuts right through her property, she said she may be spared.
“For every year this (house) sits here, this is an increase in funds that we have to put out for a property that we no longer have a say over,” Biddlecome said.
“I would love nothing more (than) for them to buy us out so we can walk away.”
The unprecedented floods that began Nov. 14, 2021, swallowed highways, farms and homes, killing five people and thousands of livestock animals.
In a recovery update Thursday, B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said repairs to the Sumas Dike in Abbotsford, which breached in the disaster, will be complete by the end of the month.
A new flood governance structure is also in the works in collaboration with Washington state, municipal, Indigenous, provincial, state and federal officials, he said.