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NICOLA VALLEY NEWS
Farm hit hard by flooding
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THURSDAY, February 24, 2022 • 5
The COLDEST NIGHT OF THE YEAR comes to Merritt once again The Nicola Valley Food Bank is encouraging Merrittonians to once again team up, fund raise, and walk in the second annual Coldest Night of the Year (CNOY). This family-friendly, winterrific fundraising walk with a virtual option available that takes place on the evening of February 26, 2022. The event will be starting at the Food Bank, and teams can choose to walk either two or five kilometers to support people experiencing hunger, hurt, and homelessness in Merritt.
Morgan Hampton REPORTER@MERRITTHERALD.COM Following an atmospheric river event in November 2021 which saw heavy rains, the water gauge on the Coldwater River near Brookmere began to show extreme and concerning rise. Within hours, the rapidly rising water began to impact properties in Merritt and others downstream a few hours after. Shealynn MacVicar, her husband Eric and their two children run the MacVicar Family Farm on ten acres in Sunshine Valley by the Nicola River, which joins with the Coldwater in Merritt. They had no idea anything was amiss until family called to check on them. “We woke up the morning of the flood to a phone call from family in town
asking if we were alright, the river was flooding and town was being evacuated,” says Shealynn. “We had no idea anything was going on.” At 7:00 AM the MacVicars checked the river, which they noted was high but not threatening their property or any infrastructure, unlike in Merritt, where people had been evacuating since the early hours of the morning. However, the situation changed quickly as the river raged on unabated and the inclement weather continued. “By 8:30 AM it was beginning to breach its banks, so we started trying to get things moved out of the back part of the property to give the river room to rise,” said Shealynn. “We began open-
ing gates for our poultry who live back there and tried to shoo them up closer to the house and hay piles to safety, and by the time we had them free we turned around and the horses were standing knee deep in water.” Realizing that this was an unprecedented event and that things were likely to get worse before they got better, the MacVicars decided to evacuate before it was too late and their access was cut off completely. During the flood event, all but one of the five bridges in the area was washed out or compromised including the Spius Creek bridge, Petit Creek bridge, Petit Creek rail bridge and the Sunshine Valley East bridge, which the MacVicars use to access their home. The horses were quickly evacuated
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to a neighbouring farm. “By the time we came back it was evident there was not much else we had time to save, so we packed our bags, pets, and kids into the truck and made the call to get to safety,” said Shealynn. “We left our place around 1:00 PM through headlight deep water in our truck, knowing the only part of our ten acres that wasn’t yet under water was our house, and the river was still rising. We had no idea what we would be coming home to. We had no time to think or feel anything, it was hair straight back from the moment we woke up until we tucked tail and left. Driving away was quite surreal.” The MacVicars spent the night with
See ‘FARM’ Page 15
For more information, please visit https://cnoy.org/location/nicolavalley
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MacVicar Family Farm is shown underwater as the family evacuates to safety during the flood of Nov. 15, during which the nearby Nicola River spilled its banks. Shealynn MacVicar/Submitted
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For more information stop by Unit B-1937 Quilchena Ave., Merritt BC or call 250-378-5
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