The entire City of Merritt, population 7,000, is under an evacuation order after flooding caused the complete failure of the municipality’s wastewater treatment plant in what city officials are calling an “immediate danger to public health and safety.”
“The wastewater treatment plant is inundated and non-operational and will be for an indefinite period of time,” reads the order, which was issued at 10:05 a.m. PT Monday, reports The Weather Network.
“Continued habitation of the community without sanitary services presents the risk of mass sewage back-up and personal health risk.”
The heavy rains that began over the weekend have led to severe flooding, along with roads being washed out and bridges being inundated. Rescue efforts have been initiated after 80 to 100 vehicles were stuck on numerous roads due to mudslides, rock debris, and flooding.
Some residents of the city were awakened Sunday night and ordered to evacuate. Merritt resident Brodie McDonald said he received a knock on the door around 12:30 a.m. and only had a little time to pack as the water was rising quickly.
McDonald said, “Some of the road in front of my house is washed out. The pavement is actually ripped up and there is a truck falling into a sinkhole in the water.”
At around 7:30 a.m. Monday, officials issued another evacuation order covering the Collettville neighborhood, warning that residents might have to be rescued by helicopter if they didn’t flee quickly.
“Merritt is and will remain strong,” Mayor Linda Brown said in a statement, per CTV News Canada. “Please, offer help to your friends, families, and neighbors, drive safely, and take care of yourselves. We will meet each other again, in our homes, where we belong.”
And according to Reuters, Canada’s Trans Mountain oil pipeline has been shut down temporarily because of rainstorms pounding parts of the province of British Columbia, the operating company said in a statement on Monday.
“As a precaution, Trans Mountain has shut down the Trans Mountain Pipeline due to widespread flooding and debris flows in the area around Hope, BC,” a company spokeswoman said in an email.
Monday at about 1:30 a.m., the City of Merritt issued an evacuation order for several addresses in the 200-year flood plain of the Coldwater River, south of Nicola Avenue.
“If you are within the 200-year flood plain of the Coldwater River, South of Nicola Avenue you must evacuate immediately,” the city’s notice said. “The city will update this evacuation order as soon as possible with specific property addresses.”
