‘Almost like being with family’: B.C. dad, daughter celebrate birthdays with new friends after rescue
Posted November 19, 2021 12:10 am.
Last Updated November 19, 2021 7:18 am.
Allen Albert and his daughter were supposed to be celebrating their birthdays, which are two days apart, on a beach in Mexico this year. Instead, they were one of many families stranded overnight in their car during the B.C. storm before being rescued by helicopter, and taken in by people who volunteered to do whatever they could to help.
But thanks to the Miller family and the community in Agassiz, it’s been one of the best, and most memorable birthdays they’ve ever had.
“It’s just been amazing here, we don’t want to go home,” Albert joked Thursday evening after his daughter’s party had wrapped up.
Trapped between mudslides during catastrophic storm
Albert, along with his girlfriend Jammeelyn, his son Owen and his daughter Analyn packed their bags full of beachwear and left their home in Edgewood on Sunday to catch a flight out of Vancouver. They’d been saving up for the trip for a long time, looking forward to a break from the rain and their first-ever trip to Mexico.
After several detours, with less than a quarter tank of gas left — they were looking for somewhere to fill up when they found themselves on Highway 7 trapped between two mudslides.
“Right when we had to stop at the second slide, I could tell that they weren’t getting in to us anytime soon,” Albert says.
“After the slides, I was outside, there were vehicles off the road that were washed away and I was checking to see if there were people in them and trying to help out any way I could. So I got soaked right through soaked all the way down to my underwear.”
Unable to keep the car running, they turned the heat on in brief, 10-minute bursts. Bundling up was not an option since they’d packed shorts, T-Shirts, sandals, and bathing suits. So, they hunkered down and waited.
“We sat there and we were a normal family. We were laughing and we were watching movies on my cell phone,” Albert says, adding he was impressed with how well the kids coped.
“They were really good. They’re very, very resilient and it was no problem at all with them. They were hungry, that’s for sure but they weren’t complaining too much.”
Monday afternoon brought the sound of low-flying choppers, and by about 3 p.m. a search and rescue crew member was going vehicle to vehicle telling trapped drivers that they would have to be airlifted out.
Albert has never been in a helicopter before, let alone during a storm. And it’s not an experience he’s eager to have again.
“When we took off, the back door and the side door were still open. So, we could see the ground getting further and further away and it was very very windy, and the rain was whipping through the helicopter. The search and rescue guys were acting like it was another day in the office, but it was very stressful for me,” he says.
“The kids enjoyed it. And my girlfriend, she was smiling the whole time. I think I was the only one that was not liking the helicopter ride.”
With help from the Canadian military, a total of 311 people, 26 dogs and one cat were flown out.
RELATED: Canadian Forces helping rescue those trapped by mudslides on Lougheed Highway
When Albert and his family were dropped off at the evacuation centre at the Agassiz Agricultural Hall they were soaked, and greeted with a hot meal, warm clothes, and an offer to get connected to one of the many locals offering refuge.
About an hour later, after they’d declined an offer to stay in a camper trailer Alicia Miller walked into their lives.
“We were a bit hesitant to accept help. We hopped in Alicia’s vehicle, the first thing she said was, ‘You guys are family now, so we’re going to take good care of you,'” Albert tells CityNews.
For Miller, the decision to open up her family’s home was an easy one. She lived through the 2013 floods in Calgary and knew firsthand the value of the kindness of strangers.”
“I ended up jobless and homeless myself. So, I knew what it felt like to be trapped and not know where to go. So, I decided to lend a hand because people opened couches to me when that happened in Calgary. So why wouldn’t I return the same favour to other people?”
Along with her husband, Kyle and their three kids (who are 11, 4 and seven-months old) Miller got to work making sure they did whatever they could to make Albert and his family feel at home.
It was easy, Miller says, because the two families clicked immediately.
“I didn’t know who I was picking up, I had no details,” she says.
“The kids hit it off perfectly. It’s so copacetic. You meet those people in life that you just feel like you’ve known them forever.”
RELATED: How to help British Columbians impacted by floods, mudslides
Then Miller found out it was going to be Albert’s 40th birthday.
“One of the first things Alicia asked me is, ‘What do you want for your birthday dinner?’ Every year my mom would ask me the same thing, and every year I would say ‘lasagna,'” Albert explains.
“I said ‘lasagna’ to Alicia and her eyes lit right up. She got very excited and she made me the most amazing lasagna.”
With Analyn’s sixth birthday coming next preparation to give the little girl a party was in high gear. By Thursday evening there was a cake donated by a local bakery, a mountain of presents, and the living room was decked out with balloons and streamers.
“Non-stop over the last three days, there’s been gifts left at Alicia’s front door for my daughter from complete strangers, people that Alicia doesn’t know, people that I don’t know. It’s just been amazing,” Albert says.
“That table full of gifts at the birthday party tonight. It was staggering to see, for sure.”
Miller says she was so moved by the community’s generosity she had to hold back tears during the festivities.
“Everyone’s been so amazing for helping them. I was trying so hard today to not happy cry.”
“I invited some complete strangers, and we invited some of my friends with kids, so she had lots of kids here. She had a blast. It was so heartwarming. We had cake and made her spaghetti and meatballs because that’s what she wanted for her birthday dinner. It was really cute.”
‘We’re going to know the Millers for a very, very long time’
Albert’s truck has been recovered, and the family is planning to start the long drive through the States and back to their home in the West Kootenays Friday morning.
“It’s almost like being with family, the way that we’ve been taken in. It’s like Analyn’s with a family member. She’s totally comfortable and she’s gonna remember it as the birthday where she met Alicia and Kyle and the kids,” Albert says.
“We’re going to know the Millers for a very, very long time.”
A refund for the cancelled trip to Cancun isn’t a sure thing, and the Millers have started a GoFundMe to help their new friends recover some of the money they’ve lost.
