Coast-to coast Consumer Focus
A Home Destroyed by a Sinkhole Leaves a Nova Scotia Family with Few Answers and Little Hope Ritika Dubey/M. Daniel Roukema
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Consumer Focus
t was 3 AM when the house shook. Then glass broke and the power went off. Just like a horror movie, that is how the ordeal began more than three years ago for a Nova Scotia family whose home collapsed into a sinkhole, crushing their dreams, and nearly their lives. Heather Strickey and her teenage daughter experienced that terrifying reality in the early hours of September 3, 2017. They were in their Falmouth home on Mountain View Drive about 65 kilometres northwest of Halifax in the Annapolis Valley. Her husband, Chris Strickey, and their other child were away on a father-daughter trip that Labour day weekend. They returned to find themselves homeless. Terrified by the house's unexpected movements, Heather grabbed her phone, hid in the bathroom with her daughter and dialed 911. “I called and told the operator what was hap-
pening,” she said, recollecting those frightening moments. “I am pretty sure there are intruders in our house.” Relaying the conversation from the police to Heather, the 911 operator said "it's a sinkhole. You need to get out of your house immediately. Only grab the most important things and get out.” At that moment, Heather had no idea that the family would never return. Overnight, the Strickeys lost their entire home, personal items, and memories to a nine-meter-deep sinkhole. The terrifying incident was compounded when the family’s insurance company, Wawanesa Mutual Insurance, denied them coverage citing that “earth movement” or settlement was not covered in their plan. Both Heather and Chris work at King’s-Edgehill School, a private co-educational institution in the
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winter edition 2021
