Daily BrewB.C. advises residents to move after deadly slide but offers them no help
Residents of the hamlet of Johnsons Landing, on the northeast shore of B.C.'s Kootenay Lake, are facing a grim future after warnings it could face another deadly landslide someday.
A geotechnical report prepared by the B.C. government in the wake of last year's massive slide that killed four people has concluded as many as 18 properties are vulnerable to another slide, CBC News reported.
Of those, 14 are at very high risk and people should probably not return to their homes because the mountain above their properties remains unstable, the report said. It means the properties are now essentially worthless.
"Well I think it's pretty devastating for some people," recovery manager Deb Borsos told CBC News. "Others probably expected the answer they got and are going to move on. They have to move on with the information they've been told."
[ Related: Johnsons Landing slide yields second body ]
Jillian Madill, who owns a home and guesthouse in the area, said geotechnicians have told residents it's too dangerous to rebuild.
Residents also have been told the province has no plans to buy the vulnerable properties or provide compensation.
"It didn't come down far enough to destroy the buildings on the place, but they are unusable," resident Harvey Armstrong, who's lived in Johnsons Landing for 40 years, told CBC News.
"I think there is an expectation there is a safety net when things like this happen. And what we found out is basically there isn't."
Madill, who's been told seven hectares of her property now are useless, said the province refuses to buy her family's land.
"We had a wonderful life and thought we'd spend the most of the rest of our days there," she told CBC News. "I think people will be astounded because I think people do believe there is help."
Johnsons Landing had a permanent population of just 45 people in a popular outdoor recreation area in southeastern British Columbia until the slide last July.
An estimated 300,000 cubic metres of dirt and debris roared down the side of a mountain, burying four homes and killing four people, Valentine Webber and daughters Diana, 22, and Rachel, 17, as well as Petra Frehse, a German living in the hamlet.
The geotechnical report released last Thursday concluded the slide was triggered by a combination of heavy rain and spring snowmelt that saturated the soil.
The B.C. government has labelled the slide an "act of God" and cut off compensation for the surviving residents, Global News reported.
[ Related: Johnsons Landing homes must be abandoned, says report ]
Emergency Management B.C. said it paid about $300,000 to help residents whose homes were destroyed. But because the province was found not to be at fault, compensation will be limited to its Disaster Financial Assistance Program, which will provided an additional $300,000 in aid.
Armstrong told the Nelson Daily News the decision to write off the area without compensation is an especially crushing blow.
“This is a double whammy for me," said Armstrong. "I still have to pay taxes on the land and I am liable if anyone is on my land if another slide comes down."
Armstrong, who had a home and pottery studio, said the only way to ensure the land won't be reoccupied is to return it to the Crown.
