Jason Rochon, who lives at the Riverside Mobile Home Park in Cache Creek, believes his home is in jeopardy if the banks aren't stabilized with rip rap (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

B.C. FLOOD

Residents of Cache Creek trailer park fear they’ll have to move next spring if nothing is done

Jul 28, 2020 | 4:42 PM

CACHE CREEK, B.C. — The Bonaparte River is down, but the damage has already been done. Some waterfront units at the Riverside Mobile Home Park are barely hanging on.

“The river has eaten away underneath the banks of seven of the trailers,” said park owner Chloe Gravelle. “So they’ve lost around 20 feet of their backyard. It’s gone.”

Jason Rochon’s trailer is still on solid ground, but for how long is the question.

“I don’t think they’re going to let us stay here, and there’s nowhere else for us to go,” he said. “So I don’t know what’s going on. It’s in limbo.”

Rochon feels Gravelle, hasn’t done enough to help residents.

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“She’s on the news parading around saying John Horgan needs to get her rip rap when she was told 11 years ago by the TNRD,” he said. “If you look across all the banks that were done 11 years ago, no one else was evacuated. Just us because she hasn’t done anything.”

Gravelle has been lobbying the province for rip rap all spring. She’s received quotes saying it would cost about $117,000 to put in. However, it’s money she says she doesn’t have, despite residents claiming she’s received plenty of government support.

“All my resources are gone. The flood events happened in 2015, ’16, ’17, ’18 and ’19 came down from the gulley, ruined my road, all the mud and debris. That’s a separate issue,” she said. “The issue here is getting rip rap. Now it’s a life-and-death situation. Some of the mobiles are about a foot from the river.”

Gravelle is travelling to Victoria next week to see what help she can get from the province. She says with the river levels down, now is the time to do it.

“It’s time now to put the rip rap, or at least in late August or September,” said Gravelle. “That should be done this summer because we’re going to have the same thing next year.”

If nothing happens, residents like Rochon could be forced out. He’s wanted to move his trailer for the last five years. Come next spring, Mother Nature may grant him his wish, just not on his own terms.