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Your Classified Connection / Vol. 24 No. 7 Friday, February 15, 2013
Market News
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Residents anxious for creek repair
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Hummingbird Creek: Province says work will be done to alleviate flood risk. By Lachlan Labere
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Swansea Point residents are feeling cautiously optimistic that work will finally be done to repair Hummingbird Creek and alleviate the risk of further flooding. On Feb. 6, Tina and Dan Keely and other Swansea Point residents received a letter from Premier Christy Clark’s executive officer, Cameron Lewis, assuring work would soon begin to repair the creek, left full of debris from a flash flood that occurred over the summer. The letter arrived the same morning BC NDP Safety Critic Kathy Corrigan came to tour the area. “Just before we went on the tour, this letter came from the government saying they were going to fix Hummingbird Creek, which we thought was absolutely spectacular because we’ve had, I don’t know how many more government reports done since last June, and every one of those reports – that we’ve been able to get our hands on – have said get that creek fixed, and get it fixed now.” B.C. Ministry of Transportation spokesperson Kate Trotter confirmed in an email that work will soon begin on the creek. “Work at Hummingbird Creek is being organized right now, and will be completed before spring freshet,” writes Trotter. In addition, a 90-minute public meeting is being held on Wednesday, Feb. 13, 7 p.m. at the Swansea Point Community Hall, during which details of the work will be discussed. On June 23, 2012, residents of the small community were forced to evacuate when a flash flood occurred along Hummingbird Creek. Boulders,
LachLan Labere/market news
n Tina and Dan Keely stand at an upper portion of Hummingbird Creek. As temperatures rise, the debrisfilled channel is a growing concern for the Keelys and other Swansea Point residents, who are anxious not to see it flood again. The province says work to reconstruct the creek will begin soon. trees and other heavy debris caught in the flow blocked a culvert going under Highway 97A, causing the channel to divert. A torrent of water and debris moved over the highway and down along Swansea Road and elsewhere in the community, causing substantial damage to roads, vehicles, homes and everything in its path. The neighbouring Hummingbird Beach Resort was also impacted by the flash flood. Residents of 2 Mile, in the District of Sicamous, were evacuated at the same time as those in Swansea Point, as a similar flash flood and debris flow was happening along Sicamous Creek.
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The creek and highway in 2 Mile have since been repaired. In Swansea Point, however, residents have been growing increasingly anxious. Though the section of 97A damaged by the flash flood and the culvert beneath were quickly restored, the channel itself remains full of debris. And with the culvert as it was prior to the flooding, Lois Schurek, who lives along the creek, is hoping for quick action from the province. She says if the government doesn’t do something soon, she will. “If they don’t come and un-dam it by the time it gets to four feet, I’m
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going to be saying, ‘I want to be paid to do your work,’” laughed Schurek, while standing beside a large portion of her property that is now a boulderfilled creek bed. Schurek adds that, as a result of the flooding, the creek is now significantly higher, making the culvert less effective – a point she and the Keelys are well aware of given the recent warm weather. “All of these flows or debris events, the earliest we’ve had on record is June 23,” says Tina. “But every year it gets
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