Military arrives in Princeton, B.C. to help with flood relief, preparation for more rain

Princeton Mayor Spencer Coyne is relieved. The military has arrived in the flood-ravaged town as B.C. braces for another series of storms.

A platoon of about 30 arrived Wednesday, several days after Coyne made a formal request for help.

“They’re helping us with sandbagging efforts in preparation for the atmospheric river that’s supposed to be coming,” Coyne says.

“We’re prepping all the sandbags right now so we can deploy them en masse. We want to shore up our defences on both sides of town right now. We’re so grateful that they’re there. The morale of the community has gone up since they’ve shown up.”

RELATED:‘Princeton always steps up for Princeton’: Community comes together amid flooding, evacuations

The town’s location at the junction of the Tulameen and Similkameen Rivers makes it vulnerable to further flooding, as water levels remain high. Both rivers breached their dikes during the previous storm, sending water coursing through the streets and forcing hundreds to evacuate.

Those residents have since been allowed back in to clean out their homes, and survey the damage. Piles of debris and washed-out appliances were lining the streets earlier this week, but there’s been a community effort to help with the clean up.

“A couple of days ago it was crazy. We’ve had an army of volunteers. They’ve been bringing the stuff out of people’s homes and out onto the streets for them,” Coyne says, adding the effort was organized through a local Facebook group dedicated to helping out. “We were able to move a whole bunch of material really fast.”

Next, a contractor and a resident with a dump truck showed up to help. Soon after, it seemed like everyone with an available truck or trailer was pitching in.

RELATED: Entire town of Princeton on evacuation alert, no drinking water or gas

Properties within the town boundaries have been under evacuation alert since Nov. 17, when both natural gas and safe drinking water were not available.

“Water is our main issue right now,” Coyne says, adding the gas has been turned back on but only one water line out of six is functional.

“To supply the north side of town, we’re using two fire hoses that are going from fire hydrant to fire hydrant across our old wooden bridge,” Coyne explains.

Work has started on a new line under the river, but right now the supply is precarious and it is still not safe to consume.

Residents are being asked not to use tap water at all.

Coyne says the key concern when it comes to water is the ability to fight fires, noting there was a house fire Tuesday and they had to rely on water supplied by a private business.

“The sooner we get fire protection back the better. It’s going to get cold. It’s already getting cold, we had snow yesterday. People are gonna be using their fireplaces and everything. Accidents happen. We need to be able to protect the citizens of the community.”