Shift in Focus for Icejam Community Information Forums

By 250 News

By Corrin Peet

Prince George, B.C. - The water levels at the three water measuring stations along the Nechako River have been consistently lowering, causing the Prince George Emergency Operations Team to move into monitoring and recovery mode. There will now be twice weekly helicopter flights to scope the area, as well as regular round the clock monitoring.

There will be a shift in focus for the Community Information Forums from an open community forum to more of an intimate setting. The focus will now be to assist homeowners that have been affected by the flood to identify what the damage is, and to develop personal action plans to get people back into their homes. These plans will aid the homeowners in listing the tasks that need to be done in preparation of the work needed to return their homes to their pre-flood states. Currently, $4.28 million has been spent on flood mitigation and close to $16 000 has been spent on recovery from these floods.

“The affected homeowners are going to start to look at their emotional needs, personal action plans, safety, and what needs to be done at this point to get them back into their homes.” stated Debbie Scarborough, who is under contract with the city for recovery operations. “It’s going to be a more intimate group."

At this time there are 24 homes that are under evacuation order, with some homeowners choosing to stay on their property. Because many of these homes have been without hydro for 60 days any flooding that has occurred has frozen, causing significant damage. This freezing makes identifying the damage extremely difficult.

Even though it is difficult to assess the damage at this point, the City is stressing that affected homeowners need to fill out their Disaster Financial Assistant Applications. If homeowners do not fill out the applications by March 11, they will not be eligible for compensation from the government.

“It is critical that Victoria knows the extent of the damage to this area.” Scarborough said. “To date, Victoria has only received 16 Disaster Financial Assistant Applications. That is not representative of how many homes have actually been affected.” She expects that there should be between 60 and 70 applications sent to Victoria.

The final Community Information Forum will be held at the Civic Center on Tuesday Feb. 12 at 7pm. After that, the Prince George Emergency Operations Team will be focusing on getting the homeowners and their families back to a state of normalcy.

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