South Delta cleanup begins
Insurance adjusters are heading to the Tsawwassen's Beach Grove-Boundary Bay area on Monday to assess the costs of flood damage over the weekend.
More than 150 homes were damaged when a combination of high winds and an extremely high five-metre tide washed out a section of the seawall along Boundary Bay.
About 200 people were told to leave their homes and Delta Mayor Lois Jackson declared a state of emergency. At the height of the storm, about 50 residents actually left their homes.
Lorraine Clenehan says she woke Saturday to find the surf pounding at the door of her Boundary Bay home.
"The waves were coming about 30 or 40 feet high over the seawall, halfway down my yard, which is like 200 feet deep, and then going over the hedge and into the farmer's field next door," she said.
Rod Vanageren said he woke up Saturday morning to find waves sweeping into his yard.
 High tides combined with heavy winds sent water flooding through dozens of homes. |
"Just the waves were hitting the seawall and coming right over. ... It just took about half an hour before it was knee-deep."
Jackson says she doesn't know the total cost yet, but she expects it to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"My understanding is that many of the people did not have insurance, being a beach property. But under a state of emergency, funding is available. That obviously has to be approved by Victoria. And we did that first off, when I declared the state of emergency."
Jackson says the flooding in her community is the worst in decades.
B.C. Solicitor General John Les says disaster relief of up to $3 million will be made available to flood-stricken Delta residents.
Les says the disaster relief program helps pay for clean-up and repairs not covered by home insurance. It covers up to 80 per cent of costs – up to a maximum of $300,000.
He says he hopes to have officials on the ground on Tuesday to take applications.
- LINK: B.C. Hydro outages
The big windstorm also knocked out power to more than 50,000 homes in southwestern B.C.and nearly 200,000 homes and businesses in Washington state.
South of Kingston, Wash., the tides and winds were strong enough to knock one house off its foundation.
Amtrak train service between Vancouver and Seattle was suspended for the weekend while crews assess damage to tracks from flooding. There was also a mudslide over the tracks north of Seattle.