Twenty-four members of the Bonaparte Band, whose homes and properties were affected by the mudslides along Highway 99 on August 11, have been evacuated and are currently living in hotels in Cache Creek and Ashcroft while they wait for the results of a geotech assessment of the area.
Bonaparte Chief Ryan Day says that the residents lived primarily on IR2, also known as 3 Mile. In addition to one house that had its first floor filled with mud, necessitating the rescue of all six occupants, Day says that two or three houses had mud come up the driveway to the front door. “The residents were evacuated as it wasn’t safe for them to be there.”
An Emergency Social Services (ESS) centre has been set up at the Band office, where evacuees can get help in processing support forms for Emergency Services BC. “We’ve also been in touch with the First Nations Health Authority and First Nations ESS to get mental health support for people.”
Day says that a section of Highway 99 was wiped out by the slides, and that it was a priority to get the road open again. “Our people couldn’t go back in, and access was tough because the road to Lillooet was also closed. People on IR1 were cut off for a while there. We were able to send someone up in a helicopter to have a look, and we’re doing what we can, but there are emergencies all over the place.”
Day says that the evacuated residents will be kept out until the results of the geotech analysis can be reviewed, which was scheduled to take place at a council meeting on August 20. “We haven’t made a decision on the next steps. In the meantime, people can’t get back in to start clean-up.”
He adds that the clean-up process will be a long one, given the amount of debris that came down in the slides, which were in areas that were burnt out after last year’s fires. “We’re going to be dealing with it for years to come.”
He notes that in the year since the 2017 fires, the Band has been proactive in working with the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (FLNROD) to recover the affected land.
“We’re taking measures to recover the land so that future events won’t be so severe. We’re working on silviculture measures to help reclaim the land so that it retains water better. The Bonaparte Band and seven others are working with FLNROD to make sure areas affected by the Elephant Hill wildfire are better than they were before.
“We developed salvage principles first. That’s a big, important piece we did with the Ministry. Then we worked on silviculture principles, and we’ve been working on the recovery of the fireguards. They were reseeded a couple of months ago, which is important so that invasive species don’t take hold. And we had to re-contour the fireguards, because in some places water wasn’t flowing properly.”
Speaking of the current plight of the evacuees, Day says “It’s a strained situation for people, who are still struggling from last year. It’s hard to be out of your home when the flooding is over. Everything has dried up, but they can’t go home, because it’s too unstable. And the smoke doesn’t help.”
editorial@accjournal.ca
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