New Crosby sweater a silver lining for Merritt resident after harrowing week of flood escape, recovery

MERRITT, B.C. — A Merritt resident whose basement was destroyed by flooding last week is finding the silver linings — a community rallying together to help each other out and an unexpected gift.

Zach Wright and his girlfriend were woken up by Merritt RCMP around 4:00 a.m. last Monday morning (Nov. 15) and told to leave the community after the Coldwater River broke its banks.

Wright, a former Merritt Centennials assistant coach, grabbed what he could, including his two cats, and jumped into his Chevrolet Cobalt. Minutes into his drive, the flood waters lifted his vehicle off the road.

“When I was driving away, the sides of the roads were kind of filling with water. I tried to dart down this one road, my car just started floating and shut off,” he said, “so I bailed out of that and grabbed our pets.”

As he watched his vehicle float down the river, and water rise past his waist, Wright carried himself and the two cats to safety. He was able to hike up to the nearest road, and eventually settled at his mother’s place in Merritt’s Bench neighbourhood on the hill.

Wright, who works for B.C. Timber Sales, carried on to help other flood evacuees on the same day his basement was flooded. The next day, he was in his place pumping out water and shoveling piles of silt that had settled in his basement. He’s been trying to dry out his house in the days since.

“It’s been seven days of running dehumidifiers and fans to try to get all the moisture out. It’s just coming to the house, filling the generators with fuel and just puttering away with stuff that needs to get done,” he said.

With Wright completing renovations upstairs, most of their possessions were in the basement and were destroyed. However, the one item left hanging on the wall were two hockey jerseys — a Joe Sakic jersey and Sidney Crosby jersey he received as a teenager.

“Somehow both were still on their hangers. They hadn’t even been moved. Meantime, a couch and bed had just been thrown around there, so I thought it was ironic,” said Wright.

Wright tweeted a picture of the Crosby jersey and tagged the Pittsburgh Penguins, who responded.

“Within eight minutes of tweeting it, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Twitter account messaged me to send me a new jersey, so it’s kind of good part of the week,” he said.

After a week of cleaning up his house — and helping others in Merritt —Wright says receiving a new Crosby jersey is a silver lining amid a difficult week for himself and the entire city.

“It wasn’t the reason I put it on [Twitter], to get that or anything. It’s probably a little bit of luck they saw it. They don’t have to do that, but it’s neat for them to reach out and offer that,” said Wright.

“The bigger silver lining this week has just been the crew of friends and family that we’ve had, that have put us up and fed us, and come down here every day and run a shovel or a wheelbarrow, help move furniture. That’s kind of the true silver lining of the week.”