Solicitor General To Tour Flooded Areas

Saturday, December 15, 2007 05:58 AM

Prince George, B.C. - Public Safety and Solicitor General John Les will be in Prince George later today to visit the flooded areas of Prince George. Yesterday, Les confirmed there would be compensation for flood victims, however the Disaster Financial Assistance won’t be announced until the flood event starts to subside. As soon as the DFA is announced, all those who had damage have 90 days to file their claim.

The flooding of the Nechako River is now a level 2 emergency, meaning it is an event of longer duration with limited evacuation. The next level, level 3, is an event of larger magnitude with multiple sites, and involves multiple agencies.

Les will see and hear first hand many of the concerns of the business owners and representatives who huddled late yesterday with civic and emergency response teams. He will meet with the business group at 10:30, then tour the damaged area before noon.

The business group says the situation is getting much more serious as each day goes by. CN is said to be concerned that water could undermine their track system, and if that happens, there would be no ability to move fuel or supplies by rail to the west. Business people say there is also a problem of our credibility as we launch a new shipping port from Prince Rupert by saying we can get the goods to the markets faster.

Another source of concern is PG Pulpmill Road, if that arterial road is knocked out, a further 1500 to 2000 people could be out of work because of the inability to get chips or workers to the mills. Another problem may be the inability of Husky Oil (the source of most of the fuel for this region) to dispense their product. An immediate concern is the risk of fuel leaking from the ESSO bulk plant from storage tanks buried underground.

Members of the business community say the time for watching the event is over, the time for action is now.

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Posted on Saturday, December 15, 2007 05:58 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: acrider54 on December 15 2007 6:38 AM

Tours, studies, more studies and no action is the norm.

Posted by: BCRacer on December 15 2007 6:46 AM

In my opinion this is sort of like putting icecream in a fry pan....
It might be amusing to watch but it isn;t going to accomplish much.
I would almost be ready to wager that if it was Campbell's or Les home town, or might in some way interfere with the 2010 fiasco, something would get done very quickly

Posted by: seamutt on December 15 2007 8:06 AM

Will he be wearing a plaid shirt and jeans just like Gordo did a few years back to show he can fit in with the northern rabble.

Posted by: diplomat on December 15 2007 9:13 AM

The Dutch for instance build dikes BEFORE (yes, BEFORE!!! )the floods come, believe it or not!

It's probably politically incorrect to make a statement like that but Mr. Brinks knows how the Netherlands protects itself.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on December 15 2007 9:15 AM

Gordo has a very nice collection of shirts.
Most of them he got of the backs of northerners!

Posted by: Andyfreeze on December 15 2007 9:19 AM

Gordon will also likely face a leadership review before the 2010 Olympics.
The he will have a nice collection of shirts with stab marks in back!
:-)

Posted by: Bridge on December 15 2007 9:45 AM

Bet the Mare will be touring with the Solicitor General for a photo op.

Cheers

Posted by: REALIST on December 15 2007 10:33 AM

Don't forget say no evil, speak no evil and do nothing. They love photo ops too!!

Posted by: diplomat on December 15 2007 11:19 AM

"Members of the business community say the time for watching the event is over, the time for action is now."

Can't call on the Army to help - they are too busy in Afghanistan destroying poppy fields!

Posted by: Eagleone on December 17 2007 7:28 AM

Don't forget about the road salt. The 400 ton stock pile shed is also in the effected area and inaccessable likely for the rest of the winter if the water re-freezes. This could mean problems in off loading it from the rail cars and getting it out to the local highway sheds, to say nothing of its effects on the watershed.

All of this is one more reason why the federal and provincial government should be enabling an alternate route from Fort St James to Vanderhoof for CN Rail so that the system has redundency in it to deal with situations like this ice jam on the Nechako and their 100 year old Fraser crossing bridge in PG. CN is a hair away right now IMO from loosing their only line going West of PG.

Time Will Tell