KAMLOOPS — Friday morning marked the first time residents along Ramage Road have been back in their home for three weeks.
They were evacuated April 27 and weren’t sure when they would return, but with the slope north of Rayleigh stabilizing, they’ve been given the green light by the City of Kamloops to come back.
Marie-Ann Funk is unpacking the last her belongings, some of which has been in storage the last three weeks while evacuated.
“Relief,” she said. “Our land is still here and our homes are still here. They’re intact, so I’m just thrilled.”
All 22 residents were back Friday morning. The slope above them has stabilized and is not a threat, although many residents there weren’t too concerned.
“Truthfully no,” said Trevor Wood, who’s a co-owner of the property on Ramage Road. “It had been moving so slowly for two months that we weren’t super expectant that it was going to do anything devastating. It might have slid across the highway, and of course ruptured that gas line up there.”
“There was always a bit of nervousness in the background, but we knew there were smart people working on it.”
Geotechnical engineers have been monitoring the slope the last month. Some diversionary piping was put in place and has made all the difference in stabilizing the slope.
“We’ve had some natural drying of the slope because of the warmer weather now, but it was really impacted previously because we had the water from the spring coming down, so that piping that’s now moving that water away from it has really helped to improve that drying trend,” said Tammy Robertson, EOC information officer with the City of Kamloops.
While it’s been a long three weeks, residents are thankful for the support they’ve received.
“The government’s really helped us out with different things like giving us food vouchers,” said Funk. “All our tenants, they’ve been able to stay in hotels.”
More than anything, everyone is happy to be back together as a community.
“Just to have our community. It’s great,” said Funk. “For our farm animals, it’s been good to bring them back to the farm and be able to take care of them all here, instead of all over the place.”
