B.C. flood victims still out of homes, awaiting financial relief a year later

Abbotsford, B.C. -

A year after catastrophic floods hit B.C.'s Sumas Prairie, Marni Brechin’s family home is still in shambles.

The house has been gutted, flooring and drywall have been ripped out, and it is nowhere near livable.

“It’s very difficult to be in limbo and to be having no timeline — and also no roadmap as to how to navigate through it,” said Brechin who has been living with her daughter.

Last November, her home filled with more than six feet of water. Now, she says it needs to be torn down.

“I felt really sad. Not just for us, but for everybody in the community,” she said of the disaster and its aftermath

Brechin's family had some insurance and received about $53,000. But they had also hoped to get additional money through the province’s Disaster Financial Assistance program.

But she said BC Assessment pegged her home’s value at around $19,000, and told her they had no record of improvements to the aging house since the 70s.

“(They) said that because we received the insurance money that was more than they would have given us, we were denied eligibility,” she said.

“You can’t buy an RV for $19,000,” she added.

Pictures from before the flood indicate the home had been updated inside. She said hundreds of pictures showing the improvements were provided in her application for assistance.

Emergency Management B.C. said in an email that it would not comment on Brechin’s case due to privacy legislation.

According to that agency, $24.6 million dollars has been paid out in disaster assistance.

There were 2,298 DFA applications following the atmospheric rivers last November with 1,927 completed. But that means hundreds of applications are still outstanding. EMBC did not answer CTV’s request for information on how many applications have been rejected.

“There are still some that we know are outstanding,” said Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth.

“Those particular ones tend to be either more complicated or there’s information still required,” he added.

Abbotsford’s former mayor, Henry Braun, said he’s also met with people who aren’t getting the help they need a year later.

“We have to figure out a way to help people who seem to have fallen through the cracks,” he said, promising to advocate for them even though he is no longer in office.

EMBC said the Province has made “significant” changes to ensure more people, communities and businesses can receive benefits from the DFA program.

Brenchin admits she missed a cut-off to appeal the property assessment, but she believes there need to be changes to the complex process that victims need to navigate in order to access assistance.

“It would have been better if they had assigned a case manager to people that were applying so that person could walk them through the process,” she said.

“There wasn’t any guidance other than what was written – and that’s’ a lot of paperwork to read through when you have experienced the trauma of a flood.”

She plans to appeal the DFA decision.