West Vancouver residents frustrated with district's response to storm

Brittany La Torre and her husband Marc moved into their West Vancouver home just six months ago, but after last weekend's storm brought a torrent of muddy water and debris into their basement, knocking out power, they're not sure whether they'll be living in it six months from now.

"This was supposed to be our home where we were going to raise our child," Marc told CTV News.

"We don't have the money to rebuild, so I don’t know what we are going to do."

A few minutes away, an apartment building on Bellevue Avenue was hammered with rain and debris.

The parking garage filled with water in just 10 minutes, according to residents, leaving cars submerged in water and mud and leaving the building without electricity.

Residents say the District of West Vancouver could have done more to mitigate the damage.

"We were told by the workers that all the sandbags had been given to the District of North Van," said resident Mark Goddard.

"We were mortified, because if they had sandbagged the end of 25th (Street) like we asked, this could have been avoided."

The project manager in charge of restoration for the block says work could take at least three months, if not nine, without support from the district.

Drew Hogarth of Circle Restoration said the parking garage filled up with roughly six million pounds of water and debris.

The biggest challenge, according to Hogarth, will be getting the parts necessary to restore the power.

Down the block, businesses were also destroyed, and proprietors say there's no indication of when they'll be back up and running.

"There's only so much insurance and the deductible is huge," said Katie Hlynsky of Hlynsky architects.

"It's also the fact that we've been here for 25 years. All that work – lots of work – is, you know, gone."

West Vancouver Mayor Mark Sager told CTV News the district did its best, but the storm was just too powerful.

"We had sandbags, but it just eclipsed the amount of sandbags we had," he said. "I mean, nobody anticipated 313 (millimetres). I think the next highest rainfall amount (on record) was about a third of that."

The cleanup is ongoing, but community members say they're unsure how to move forward.

"Water is still pouring into our house," said Marc La Torre.

With files from CTV News Vancouver's Yasmin Gandham