B.C. flood victims feel lowballed by property buyouts

More than one year after rescuers swam from home to home in a low-income neighbourhood devastated by flooding in Grand Forks, B.C., some residents say they were rattled to learn the property buyouts they’ve been waiting for will be based on postdisaster values.

It’s one of several steps in the community’s recovery process that could be replicated elsewhere as climate change brings more extreme weather.

Dave Soroka, a 65-year-old musician who lives on the flood plain, says it’s the latest bad news in what has been a difficult year.

“We all understood that was possible but with the optimism that was being thrown at us, that line ‘We’ve got your backs,’ it all sounded good,” he said.

Soroka and his wife own two properties in North Ruckle that were assessed before the flood at a combined $270,000 and after at $150,000. They are pensioners who had paid off their mortgages but may now go into debt to buy a new home. They have organized a neighbourhood meeting to discuss options.

“We’re not rich people down here on the flood plain, we’re low-income folk,” Soroka said.

Grand Forks is the first community of its size in B.C. to experience flooding on this scale in decades and has become the test site for recovery efforts that could be duplicated in other places given the extreme weather brought on by climate change.

“This is the first circumstance like this that the province had dealt with in recent history,” said Dave Peterson, assistant deputy minister for B.C.’s office of recovery, planning and disaster risk reduction.

Grand Forks Mayor Brian Taylor said part of the community has been thrown into a “panic” over the news.

Joint funding for “disaster mitigation and adaptation” was announced on June 26, with about $20 million coming from Ottawa, $29 million from B.C., and $3 million from the city. The money will support buying properties to restore the North Ruckle neighbourhood to a natural flood plain, the reinforcement of about 1,300 metres of river bank and the construction of a retention pond.