From Isolated and Trapped to Port of St. Ives
Suddenly being cut off from the world and trapped was the only way to describe our situation in St. Ives. We really had no idea how serious the situation was down the road towards Celista and Scotch Creek. We received a glimpse of the fire over text from our neighbours who were returning to Alberta and how the fire was just about at the Scotch Creek bridge, and then our power and internet went down. The only connection with the world from then on were our cellular phones and the social media. Without the power and internet we could not listen to the radio, and who has radio these days. Well, a lesson learned have one on batteries.
As the weekend progressed Jay Simpson kept Miki Andrejevic, my husband, well informed as to what was happening. Others in the community were trying to connect to our MLA as by Friday afternoon the road past Magna Bay was closed. Some of us were able to get on the CSRD website on our phones to learn that Magna Bay, Celista and Scotch Creek had been evacuated, as the backburn attempted on Thursday the 17 th backfired, literally. We literally did not know how far the fire extended to the east and so we fire proofed our houses as much as we could, packed our bags and important belongings. As we saw dozen upon dozen cars passing on the Anglemont-Squilax highway, heading for Seymour Arm, we were wondering why no one was asking us to leave. Indeed, some of the St. Ives residents did leave to see if they could drive on the back road to Highway 1, north of Malakwa.
People in St. Ives started gathering on intersections of our community hammering out an exit plan. Our Ratepayers Association Board of Directors were constantly in touch as to the next steps. We decided that if we had to evacuate we would form a convoy to travel over Seymour Arm as the forestry road was still not well marked, especially if we had to leave at night Throughout the weekend we were receiving messages from our area Director Jay Simpson that the current concern was Lee Creek, Scotch Creek, Celista to Magna Bay and that St. Ives was not under no threat, but no one could be certain and no one was able to check as the highway to the west was closed. We had no idea what mayhem existed between St. Ives and Highway 1 towards Chase. Then we heard the fire jumped over to Sorrento, and that the firefighters were evacuated from the camp situated slightly north of the Chevron Station.
The point was we had no communication from anyone the whole weekend except from our Area Director, and he was 40 km west of St. Ives, also trapped by fires in Lee Creek. On Sunday, I was even on CBC Cross Country Check conveying what it’s like being trapped; an uncertain road through Seymour Arm, and lack of communication for our safety. Luckily, I had an internet stick that works like a hotspot on the phone, and an email came from a friend in Kamloops with a back country map showing the forestry road we were contemplating to drive on.
As the Neighbourhood Emergency Program (NEP) representative for St. Ives, I was in complete limbo throughout the weekend, no one connected with me from Emergency Evacuation Services, at least just to let me know officially what was going on so I could inform our community. Social Media was outrageous it was more harmful than helpful. We ignored what was there. On Saturday I called our NEP Coordinator in CSRD and she said she was busy setting up an evacuation centre at the Quaaout Lodge, and said that Anglemont and St. Ives were not under threat. While others tried to get in touch with our MLA, on Sunday evening, I was so frustrated I emailed the Premier’s office and got an answer early Monday morning that someone from Ministry of Emergency Preparedness will get in touch with me. Again, on Monday morning I called our NEP CSRD Coordinator and she was on her way to Kamloops to set up an evacuation centre there as the road to Salmon Arm was now impassable by the fires. She gave me a phone number to call.
Immediately on Monday around noon, I received a call back from the CSRD Emergency Centre and then another from Corey Paiement at CSRD. By this time rumour had it that we had to apply for a permit to leave our area, and all sorts of conspiracy theories were arising. Some people needed to see a dentist, others a doctor. What really took me back with a pleasant surprise was that all the CSRD staff had put all their work aside and were there for everyone that was affected by the wildfire. Once Corey, whose day job for CSRD is Director for Planning and Zoning, got in touch with me and no request was too much to ensure we had everything (including the very needed garbage bin). He immediately connected me to Michelle Boag, whose day job is a building inspector for CSRD, and I was given information about travel permits.
Just as we were able to travel again with permits the road closed again. Of course, no one was happy about the permits, and why our movement was being controlled. Once the march on the blockade happened in Sorrento people began inventing stories and government plots. The media certainly did not help by focusing on the protest, no one got in touch with us to ask what we needed or how trapped we were. The incident in Sorrento painted us as if we were all rebels; well those 20 some odd individuals made all of us, thousands of people on the North Shore painted with the same brush, while most of us were struggling to find a way to organize and survive.
As the road closed again, and the permits stopped, our community almost exploded. The point was that no one, absolutely no one told us to why the permits were no longer issued. Even our contacts at CSRD were in quandary as to the decision. This is where I blame the media for not picking this up and finding out as to why this was happening, instead our young people were fed conspiracies on social media. In fact, we had one vehicle come in on a permit to deliver a generator and the driver was requested to leave within an hour. We did not know why. By this time Ross Creek was running out of fuel for generators and those running on propane were also about to shut down. Things were getting rather hectic.
On Wednesday noon I requested that our whole community meet at the Lakeview Community Centre that afternoon so we could get organized. Over 30 people showed up, and people offered to do different things. Offered their boats to get our person with the dental problem across to Wild Rose and to be taken to Salmon Arm by the NEP rep in Wild Rose Bay. Others were volunteering to put sprinklers on the roof, while others still to help out anyway they could. Many helped neighbours fire safe their homes, take food from and clean fridges. Others were introduced to the Food Bank at the Lakeview Community Centre that was set up and dinners that were cooked there as people were running out of groceries. Again, something we knew nothing about in St. Ives only 5 KM to the east.
That evening, Wednesday, August 23, I received a call from Michelle, at CSRD, connecting me with the barge operator, who I connected to one of our community members Don Shaw, to find the best place to land the barge the following morning in St. Ives. Michelle from CSRD found a way to circumvent the road closure by arranging for our community members to travel over water with their own vehicles and others to return home as they were stranded - caught by the initial road closure, or to go to their medical appointments and buy groceries. The day we went on the barge, a car loaded to the brim with a mom and her baby, and grandmother with her three dogs all in one car, came home to St. Ives. Their tears were enough to tell me how grateful we were to CSRD for providing a way to get these women back to their husbands and fathers in St. Ives.
The most memorable of all was the way our community came together and the way CSRD helped us out. On Thursday morning within hours the extension of Southwind Road was cleared of debris by Don Shaw’s bobcat, rocks were removed obstructing access and leveled all the way to the water. By 11 am we had first propane truck arrive, then another, then CSRD with the foodbank and supplies for the Ross Creek store. Few days later we asked for gravel to fortify the road to the lake and we got two truck loads. From then on until the road was finally open the barge took people back and forth in their vehicles to reach their destinations on the other side once they reached Eagle Bay. We now have the Port of St. Ives, thanks to CSRD and our community volunteers.
What we also needed was data, as we lacked Internet. This was last on my list and finally by August 23 rd I reached a person in Calgary to give the Telus users in the Wildfire area of North and South shore of the Shuswap top up of data to 35 Gigabits. This was no small task as I reached all the way up to the Telus President’s office. Other telecom companies followed suit.
This whole incident brought our community together, a silver lining in a potentially catastrophic situation. What was lacking was the timely information as to the reason the highway was closed. We knew that the poles were down but no one told us that they were live wires on the road reverse fed with electricity by generators, or that the trees were still burning at their roots and posed hazard for anyone on the road.
Finally, we cannot thank enough all the volunteers in our community who distributed the food to the needy, those who cooked for Fire Fighters at the Lakeview Community Centre and those who used their own resources to built the road to the water so we could be transported on the barge. Cars and families, supplies and propane, from Ross Creek to Seymore Arm were transported on the barge from Eagle Bay to St. Ives and back until the highway reopened. I cannot name the many people who helped but be assured that you know who you are and so do we in the St. Ives Ratepayers Association. We applaud you all. This whole incident also showed us how important it is for St Ives to have a community dock both for safety and emergency reasons.
By Nene Jocic-Andrejevic
