A group of Chilliwack River Valley homeowners are stymied after being turned down for disaster financial assistance despite having their properties destroyed or rendered uninhabitable in the 2021 atmospheric river events.
Erv Warkentin, 62, is one of six owners to receive the final "no" from the province for funding.
"It's unbelievable," Warkentin said.
After suffering crippling losses the six families had been pinning their hopes on getting better news from a renewed push almost three agonizing years after the disaster struck.
"As everyone knows your life savings are in the equity of your home," Warkentin said.
"We just want to be treated the same as everybody else who faced a disaster. I would hope we would be looked after."
Warkentin had to leave and rent out a shop and apartment from his mother-in-law after the worst weather disaster to hit the valley, while continuing to work, and advocate for himself and neighbours — all to no avail.
"It's been very troubling."
The reports conclude that all six properties "are no longer safe to occupy as they are substantially at greater risk of landslides," but some families are living in them.
Any potential mitigation efforts were deemed by consultants to be cost-prohibitive or ineffective. Things look bleak unless the province reverses its decision - or the court forces it to.
"At this point it seems as if they are just trying to wait for us all to die off," Warkentin said.
They had re-applied to the province in 2024 for disaster funding relief, but were denied, again.
When the rivers of water and debris came pouring off a nearby mountainside toward his property in November 2021, it all stopped just at his fenceline.
But Warkentin's home was nonetheless slapped with a notice prohibiting human habitation.
It was "instantly" condemned by a geotechnical engineer, he remembered as there's the lingering threat of the mountain coming down in a slide and killing someone, even though it hasn't moved one iota since the disaster.
"It didn't wreck my house at all but it was as if it was wrecked it because I can't live there."
Wendy Sinclair Hornberg called the province's decision not to help the six owners "heart wrenching and devastating."
She and her husband, three dogs and two cats still live in the home after building a berm to protect the structure from smaller slides that may come down, but not the big one that engineers say is coming.
"Perhaps it was naive of me to think they (provincial officials) would come through and offer some sort of solution. We held out hope it would come to fruition but in the end, it didn't. Now it feels like we're stuck with no way out," she said.
When it rains heavily like it did on Tuesday, it's super stressful since they're always in a hyper vigilant state not knowing if the land was going to come down in a slide or not.
An online fundraiser has been launched to help the six property owners, as well as an event 'Rally in the Chilliwack River Valley' is a fundraising event on Nov. 23 at the Chilliwack Fish and Game Club at 48865 Chilliwack Lake Rd.
The violence of the 2021 atmospheric river events wreaked "significant slope movement" in the Chilliwack River Valley (CRV) and has permanently changed and weakened these slopes.
There was severe bank erosion along the Chilliwack River, and slumps elsewhere. Assessments were commissioned by FVRD to evaluate geohazard conditions from KWL Engineering, Statlu Environmental, and Geowest Engineering and Cordilleran Geoscience.
One of the reports states: “a large landslide in the CRV is certain, and such a landslide(s) would damage or destroy any structures and kill anyone inside.”
With the risk of catastrophic landslides, it would be impossible to sell the homes on the open market at a reasonable price.
And there it is in a nutshell.
Warkentin says his house is valuated at one dollar. They cancelled his house insurance and the group's appeals for buyout of the properties and financial assistance went nowhere.
They all have similar but different stories. Their financial futures are now uncertain.
An online fundraiser has been initiated to help them get a resolution in court, and they are hoping to retain legal counsel to seek solutions.
FVRD electoral area E rep Patti MacAhonic has been meeting with residents, and advocating on their behalf.
She said the owners can't begin the process of recovery because they are living in a permanent state of limbo.
MacAhonic said she hopes the community fundraisers will also raise awareness that these CRV residents are not forgotten and they are supported, and their community is behind them one hundred per cent.
"If the provincial government decided to be heroes, they could do it," MacAhonic said.
"If they can rescind the carbon tax, they could also rescind the decision on the funding and promise to help these owners."
MacAhonic started the GoFundMe account on behalf of fundraiser organizer Sue Federspiel, who can be reached at chilliwackvalleyneighbours@gmail.com. They are seeking live and silent auction donations, and wines for the wine wall for the event on Nov. 23 at the Fish and Game Club.
