National Post (National Edition)
Wildfire, landslides test Lytton's resilience
Dan Mundell owns a farm four kilometres north of Lytton, the B.C. town that was almost completely destroyed by wildfires last summer. The local civil engineer was born in the area and has lived there for the past 23 years. While the fire only claimed a car of his that was parked in town, he worked around the clock with firefighters and other volunteers to stop the fire from threatening smaller communities on the west side of the Fraser River. He also helped in the relief effort after many of his neighbours lost their homes on June 30, opening his farm up as a centre to provide food, gas and other essentials. Now mudslides from torrential rain that hit much of British Columbia have taken out main roads, isolating the village even further. Mundell spoke to National Post about the village of 300 that just can't seem to catch a break this year, and how everyone is banding together to rebuild.
Q: How are people feeling five months after the fire?
A: Well, I think there's an obvious impatience that things aren't restoring quicker. I think the community would hope to, you know, to get the process going. Obviously the weather crisis of the past few days has further hampered efforts to focus on rebuilding.
Q: How have the floods affected Lytton?
A: We don't have any immediate damage to our farm from the flooding, but the flooding has cut off the entire region near Lytton. There's a map showing the places the roads have been closed and it's numerous, it's in every direction. The Fraser Valley, they had actual flooding, but in this part of the world, it was landslide erosion damage that washed out highways. It was flooding of mountain creeks and those washed out the roads. And there are some dramatic instances where the Trans-Canada (Highway) is washed right out. That's causing the most impact here. We don't have the kind of flooding they had in the Fraser Valley where things are inundated.
Q: You get the fire and now you get floods, Lytton can't seem to catch a break.
A: Yeah, no, it could be worse, though. It's quite obvious, when the fire swept through, there was going to be this kind of effect. Like it's pretty, pretty well-known in the mountainous areas. If you strip the forest, you're going to have major flooding in the creeks. But the structural damage to roads is quite extensive, so it's going to take some time to repair.
Q: So getting anywhere right now is pretty much next to impossible?
A: Oh, yeah. You just stay home. Absolutely.
Q: Has there been a lack of supplies getting to you?
A: Oh my, yeah, but I mean, it's just expected. Food isn't available right now in the Lytton area. We have been going to Lillooet for food and essentials, but my understanding right now is that they're out of everything. All the supplies are gone from the shelves. People that live in these regions are accustomed to periodic outages and we're just, you know, living with it. People in these parts, we're used to going shopping once a month, not once a week.
Q: Have your phone and internet services been impacted?
A: We have service right now, but we could be in crisis mode very easily. A lot of people could be knocked out of communications instantly if that fibre optic cable that's hanging by a thread breaks, I think even one of the poles is dangling in midair because of the flooding. That cable delivers internet service for all of Lytton.
Q: What has changed in your daily life since the fire?
A: Well, the village of Lytton, even though its own population was maybe only a few hundred, it actually services a population of several thousand. If you can imagine the village as a hub, and then there's spokes radiating from the hub, like transportation, internet delivery, electricity delivery, medical services, supplies and so on. The impact to the larger community, it's obviously very, very keenly felt.
For instance, for about two months, the village was under complete lockdown, so there was no access in or out of the village. That made it extremely difficult for people in the surrounding communities because their access to and from the outside world was cut off. You might have a few hundred people whose homes are burned, but then you also have a few thousand people who were evacuated because all of their services were cut off.
Q: How does it feel to drive through the town after the fire?
A: Well, I think we take it matter of factly. I believe, historically, Lytton burned twice before and, of course, it was lamentable, it's very tragic, even lives were lost, but I think the community regards it very matter of factly. Like, OK, it burned, now let us move on with our lives and restore as best we can and move into the future.