John MacLean, the Chief Administrative Officer for the Cariboo Regional District, says no one has had to be evacuated at this point…
“We’re doing our planning on the basis that if at all possible, if it safe to do so, that we want people to stay in their homes, and we’re pretty confident that’s what they would want. And we’d much rather try to shelter in place and try to support them there, and for a couple of reasons. One, people want to stay in their homes and have that sense of security and second, it is a COVID world and if we can support them in their community and their home, and not bring them out into other neighbourhoods, other communities during the pandemic, then we think that is a good idea.”
MacLean says they obviously would still evacuate residents if they had to.
He says they’re not sure how many homes are being impacted as they are still gathering that information…
“There a few places that are surrounded by water for the most part. We’re aware that we’ve sandbagged or provided resources to about five or six homes, off reserve homes. On reserve I can’t speak to. But we’re also working with our liaison up in the community to get us exact information as to who is getting help from us and how many folks are being impacted.”
MacLean says the CRD has also brought in resources from the BC Wildfire Service to help.
MacLean says in general they are also seeing spots throughout the Chilcotin and the Cariboo where creeks and rivers are running high….
“The nice warm weather is bringing down the localized snow very quickly, and we’ve got a multitude of locations that are having roads washed out, driveways damaged, people getting cut off throughout the region.”
MacLean says the Nazko area is definitely their biggest concern right now though.
Nazko was also hit by flooding back in 2018.
In that case two evacuation orders covered about 120 properties.