Christine Wood, Staff Writer
At least a dozen families on Crucil and Hillcrest roads in Gibsons are dealing with the aftermath of a mudslide that hit their homes early Sunday morning.
"It was a wall of water and mud coming down the road. Honestly, that's no exaggeration. It blew away my retaining wall," said Jim White who lives on Hillcrest Road.
His neighbour, who lives on Crucil, didn't see the "wall of water and mud," but he awoke to a home flooded with water, mud and plant debris.
"I was up just after midnight and checked things because the rain was coming down so hard. But everything was fine, so I went back to bed. Then at 1:30 a.m. the dogs woke us up when they came wading into the bedroom. I stepped out of bed into at least a foot of muddy water," said John Redfern who lives on Crucil Road.
He and his wife Shannon have been quoted between $40,000 and $50,000 to clean up their basement of the water, mud and debris that came down their road Sunday, Aug. 28. John says there is no way he and his wife, who are both receiving a disability pension, will be able to pay for the clean up needed.
"You know, we've had insurance all our lives and we've never had a claim. When this happened, I automatically thought, 'oh good, insurance will cover us,' but you can't get insurance for this kind of thing. You have to pay for it out of your own pocket," said John.
The cause of the mudslide is unclear at this point, but some are pointing fingers at the nearby development, Pacificview, where contractor Art Duke is currently installing pipelines.
"People are making me out to be the bad guy here, but I just want to clarify it's the town's problem," said Duke.
"It was [the Town of Gibsons'] culvert that was plugged up and overflowed, causing water to run up and over the roadway, over yards, into garages, and it even flooded our site," said Duke.
Developer of the Pacificview site, Jim Green, told Coast Reporter Duke was one of the people on scene at about 1 a.m. clearing the culvert of debris. "We happened to have equipment there, and Art came out to clean out the culvert. He did that off-site work to remedy the problem," said Green, noting his development, "was not the cause.
Bill Beamish, administrator for the Town of Gibsons, confirmed the culvert in question was plugged and noted, "A tremendous amount of rain came down from the sky and overran our storm sewer system. As that water travelled through properties, it picked up topsoil and gravel and sand."He says the incident was "more like a flash flood" than a mudslide.
The Town of Gibsons notified their insurance company of the incident shortly after it happened, and assessors were on site Monday to survey the damage and determine the cause.
In the meantime, the town offered John and Shannon five nights paid accommodation at the Cedars Inn while clean-up efforts were underway, but John notes they haven't been able to stay there.
"We've been using the hotel to shower basically. We need to stay here and move everything out of our basement and rip up the floors and the carpets. We can't afford to hire anyone to do it, and it needs to be done or the water will sit there and mould. We don't have time to even sleep," said John, who notes he and his wife have just spent three years remodelling their basement.
"We can't do things very quickly because of our disabilities. John can only do a little at a time, and then he needs to rest. And I can't do much. Even this clean up is too much, but we have to do it," said Shannon.
The Redfords live with Shannon's 90-year-old father, whose access ramp to the house was undermined in the slide. "Now we can't even get dad out of the house if we wanted to or if we needed to," said Shannon.
Beamish said the town is currently looking into whether they are liable for the damages caused by the "flash flood."
"Our insurance agency is investigating now and it will be up to them whether or not we are responsible," said Beamish. He expects an answer from the insurance agency sometime next week.
