The Chilliwack
Progress Friday
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Football pioneer blazing trail to CIS Bisons.
Outbreak cuts too close to home.
A.D. Rundle’s shop in need of a makeover.
Y O U R C O M M U N I T Y N E W S PA P E R • F O U N D E D I N 1 8 9 1 • W W W. T H E P R O G R E S S . C O M • F R I D AY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4
Slide puts spotlight on hillside challenges Jennifer Feinberg The Progress
Doug Ware outside his Elk View Road home six days after a wall of mud came crashing through his house on Jan. 8, 2009. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS FILE
Memories of the night the mud came down Katie Bartel The Progress
really scary stuff.” Still, Jennifer has felt magnetized to the TV every time a story of the recent slide comes on. On March 22, after days of heavy rain, a massive mudslide washed through a small fishing village in Snohomish County, about 90 kilometres northeast of Seattle, destroying approximately 30 homes. As of Thursday 25 were confirmed dead, 90 missing, and 35 whose status is unknown. “It makes me realize even more how lucky we were,” said Jennifer. “That we managed to escape anybody getting hurt
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The devastating mudslide in Washington State has one Chilliwack family recalling their own mudslide misery. Doug Ware doesn’t like to think about that horrendous morning four and a half years ago, but his wife Jennifer says it’s impossible not to with slide scenes from Snohomish County splashed all over the TV since Saturday. In the early hours of Jan. 8, 2009, the Wares were startled awake by a thunderous crack booming through their Ryder
Lake home, shaking it like a massive earthquake would, and then seconds later the sound no parent wants to hear – their daughter in the room below screaming at the top of her lungs. A current of mud and rocks had crashed through then 20-year-old Heather Sye’s bedroom window, large rocks narrowly missing her head, the force throwing her from her bed. By the time her parents reached her, all that was visible were the whites of her eyes. “I don’t like to go there, it’s pretty traumatizing,” said Doug. “If you let yourself go back there, the adrenaline starts to rush. It’s
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seriously, except for the dog of course.” The family’s 14-year-old dog Ricki was found dead in the garage days later, buried under mud. Scenes on the news have had Jennifer remembering little things, like the deep freeze flattened down to six inches, or the trees in their backyard uprooted and mud-stained. “People don’t realize how powerful a mudslide is,” she said. “It’s so heavy it will just squash anything in its path.” Doug’s heart goes out to the American community. Continued: MUDSLIDE/ p7
The deadly mudslide last week in Washington State has brought into sharp relief the menacing power of nature. But Mayor Sharon Gaetz said Chilliwack is no more at risk for landslides than any other B.C. communities with surrounding hillsides, such as North Vancouver or West Vancouver. If anything the recent slide incident in Washington State’s Snohomish County has “strengthened our resolve” to do their very best with mitigation efforts, she said. It’s been a painful reminder of what can happen. “It has been incredibly sad watching the aftermath of what happened near Arlington, Washington. Our hearts go out to the families at this time of terrible loss,” Gaetz said. It also puts the spotlight on some of the unique geotechnical challenges. “From the City of Chilliwack’s perspective, we need to do everything we can to mitigate the potential effects of something like that ever happening.” That was part of the thinking behind the evolution in recent years of the Hillside Development Standards Policy. The city’s original “guidelines” on hillside development from 2008 were updated and solidified into an official policy last year. “We’ve learned an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” said Gaetz. “Our policy now has teeth.” If they can mitigate risks by requiring the geo tech engineer to sign off on proposed development, for example, and confirm the extent of any logging above the area, it’s a start. “The policy clearly stipulates the responsibilities of the developer and engineers on this,” she said. “It underlines the fact that we want to make sure those houses are safe.” Continued: HILLSIDE/ p7
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