BY MIKE YOUDS
Special to the News
Dozens of travellers spent their weekend stranded at either end of Bamfield Main as crews worked to repair damage from Friday’s rainstorm.
Western Forest Products was expecting the road to reopen but not until Monday at noon, three days after 250 to 350 millimetres of rain fell in a 48-hour period and swept tonnes of debris down mountainsides.
With the ground already saturated by weeks of steady rain, the storm triggered overland flows that halted motorists in their tracks late Friday afternoon. The route was cut off in half a dozen locations and a bridge at kilometre 46 was destroyed. More than half a dozen other routes in southern B.C. were closed by storm damage.
Closer to town, a few low-lying properties flooded. Shelter Farm near Cox Lake was underwater.
“It’s good for the soil,” said Guy Langlois, manager of the North Island College (NIC) vocational market garden. “It does affect our plans. We certainly can’t do any pre-season gardening.” The area used to flood on a regular basis according to a previous landowner.
Several groups from outlying communities spent the weekend in Port Alberni.
Huu-ay-aht Chief Councillor Robert Dennis Sr., part of a group from Pacheena Bay, made light of the road closure, joking that they had the weekend “to enjoy Port Alberni’s special magic.” Lots of other families were stranded as well.
“Our nation set up people in hotels right away,” he said.
But there was a more serious side to the storm. He couldn’t recall a similar circumstance despite rugged west coast weather and the road’s notorious reputation.
“It was probably the biggest rain event any of us has seen in our lives,” Dennis said. “There is no last time. This is the first time we’ve seen a storm of this magnitude.”
They didn’t have the option of taking the Cowichan Lake route on account of major flooding there as well. Cowichan Valley Regional District declared a state of emergency Saturday after flooding closed Hwy. 1.
Dennis’s biggest fear is what they will find in the aftermath as they survey local streams where extensive salmon enhancement work has been done.
“That’s a lot of water and silt moving down different streams,” Dennis said.
By Saturday morning, storm silt had turned Alberni Inlet a muddy brown.
The storm brought home once again the need for road improvements along the corridor. Upgrades were promised by the provincial government last year after a bus accident that claimed the life of two university students in September. The project has yet to be approved by Premier John Horgan, Dennis said.
“I get discouraged since the highway idea seems to be moving at a snail’s pace,” Dennis said.