The Tulameen River this morning looks like time has forwarded to Spring freshet. It is amazing the havoc weather can create and so suddenly. As I look out, the temperature has been plummeting and the downpour of rain all night abruptly turned to snow. At least it is a dry snow, not the heavy wet that contributed to the ice jam on the river. We will have to wait to see if we are out of the woods yet.
Come spring there should be less debris floating down the river to cause problems if what is going by our place is an indication.
The Tulameen Fire Department deserves commendation for their proactive action in going door to door alerting residents of the possible danger, and to be prepared in case an evacuation was needed.
I would like to be able to commend Argo Road Maintenance as well, but they have done nothing in our community to be commended for as we waited to see what might happen.
If you own a 4×4, or live along Coalmont Road, evacuation would not have been a problem, as it is well maintained.
For those of us who do not fall into that group, the condition of the side roads was and still is this morning deplorable. Unnecessary delays and serious problems may have occurred. Normally I would not consider this an issue as I realize we are low on the priority list for ploughing, and every one works around this.
When such a serious issue as this occurs, standard procedure would be to alert all civil authorities of the danger. If Argo was proactive, the very first thing on their priority list should have been to dispatch a plough truck to address the situation.
Thankfully we seem to have dodged a bullet this time and may we never need to be placed in this position again.
~ Ken Davidson
Argo has waited so long, now the slush has frozen into solid ice. A snow plough won’t be able to get through. They are going to need to send a grader. Until they get our side roads cleared, anyone needing ambulance assistance will be out of luck. It would be impossible for an ambulance to get down the roads at this point. There are ice balls over two feet in diameter all over the place. They would destroy a car if it hit one.
Funny how they were out ploughing when the first snow hit. They really got control of that half inch fall quickly. What was that about? Then two days later when the heavy snowfall hit, the first driver puts the sand truck in the ditch before he got any work done. It looks to me like Argo is hiring unqualified staff.
The grader came by last night and cleared the side roads. It must have been a horrible job to do as the snow was solid ice. He did a great job though!!!