Merritt residents return home slowly, living under restricted water access

MERRITT, B.C. — The anticipated rush back home to Merritt didn’t happen, as car slowly trickled back into the city on Tuesday — eight days after a devastating flood last Monday (Nov. 15).

However, it didn’t damper the excitement of people returning home.

“When you go home, you get your own bed, your own pillow, and it’s just going to be just right. You’ve got your own easy chair, your own bathrooms. It’s back to that comfort zone again, so it’s wonderful to be back here,” said Merritt resident Jim Kelly.

The Kellys, who just moved to Merritt in July, brought home all the essentials from Kamloops, including bottled water, which will be critical in the short term. Merritt’s drinking water system is back operating, but residents returning are on a boil-water advisory. They are also restricted on how much water they should be using.

“That’s not a problem. To be quite honest, we understand exactly what’s happening in the town and the restrictions with the water and the number of pumps running,” noted Kelly.

Pumps at the wastewater treatment plant are working, but not able to properly treat sewage. The city is temporarily pumping waste downstream. A lot has went into getting people home.

“In order to allow people to return to this part of Merritt, we had to get one of our wells back online, we had to flush the drinking water distribution systems, we had to suck the debris out of the sewage system, so septic could reach the wastewater treatment,” said Merritt EOC communications manager Greg Lowis.

Residents who live south of the RCMP detachment are next to come home, but it’s not known when.

For the residents back now, it’s not an ideal situation, but they’re happy nonetheless to be back. Tosha Illingworth returned to her Merritt home on Tuesday afternoon, reuniting with her husband.

“We stayed with my sister who lives just outside of Merritt, and my husband made the decision to stay behind to keep an eye on our place and he also helped out with other family and friends that have been affected by the flood,” said Illingworth. “That’s the longest we’ve been apart, so it feels very good to be home to see him.”

However, the residents returning haven’t lost sight of what’s happened to their community, parts of which have been destroyed.

“It’s heartbreaking. It really is — to see how much damage has been done to the town,” said Kelly. “Nobody knew or could’ve forecast what was going to happen with the floods. We’ve had floods before, but not to this extent, not this magnitude.”