Debris from a landslide is shown from the air near Testalinden Creek, just south of Oliver, B.C. on Sunday June 13, 2010. As rescuers made their way through the debris of a landslide that struck several homes in southern British Columbia on Sunday, it began to appear that most area residents had made it out in time.Daniel Hayduk
The province did not issue a public warning about flood threats to Oliver, B.C., even after receiving reports through the RCMP on Friday that a hilltop reservoir was eroding and its water level surging, two days before an earthen dam gave way and unleashed a massive mudslide.
Hal Krieger, 71, was hiking around the reservoir at about noon on Friday when he saw the first danger signs and decided to report it.
"The lake was right full to the top, running over," he said, adding the water was splashing over the banks, eroding the earthen dam and an access road.
"It was starting to erode there pretty good," he said. "I thought that if this continues, the whole damn thing's going to go, so that's why I went straight down the hill and went to the tourist information and relayed the information."
Mr. Krieger delivered his warning to a tourism office in Osoyoos, about 20 kilometres south of Oliver. The office relayed the information to the RCMP, which passed it on to the Ministry of Forests and Range. What happened after that is unclear but Oliver Mayor Pat Hampson said neither he nor anyone in his municipality was made aware of any concerns regarding the reservoir lake before the mudslide. "The town was totally unaware of anything leading up to this event," he said.
The dam gave way Sunday afternoon, destroying orchards, vineyards and five houses, but no one was killed or injured.
The breach caused millions of dollars in damage, Mr. Hampson has said.
RCMP Corporal Dan Moskaluk said police received the report midday Friday and contacted the ministry "within minutes of us receiving the third-hand report from the tourism centre."
The office of B.C.'s Public Safety Minister, Michael de Jong, said Wednesday he was not available for an interview. But in an e-mail, the ministry said the information it received "was apparently not characterized as an emergency and was therefore not acted on appropriately for the reality of the situation. That's why we are reviewing what happened."
Mr. de Jong announced Tuesday that the provincial government is reviewing the chain of events leading up to the dam's failure and on Wednesday, the government announced that it started a process to check on dams throughout the province.
The Environment Ministry said staff will be checking dams throughout the province on a priority basis.
The mudslide covered Hardeep Khela's 10-acre cherry and apricot orchard and she is upset the government didn't do anything to prevent it. She figures her family's losses are close to $1-million and that it will take about six years to recover.
"How can they ignore this?" she asked. "This is such a big thing, they're playing with lives."
She said she hopes someone is held to account for the failure to act. "This was clear and they were warned. They had enough time to do something."
The Oliver area's Liberal MLA, John Slater, said he doesn't know what happened but he will be asking his own questions about whether his government missed an opportunity to avert the disaster.
Mr. Slater was returning to Oliver Wednesday evening to visit the emergency operations centre.
"We need to get all the facts first," he said. "That will all come out in the report to come out in the middle of July."
The investigation into what caused the breach and subsequent mudslide is being conducted by the ministry of the environment's enforcement branch, the Conservation Officer Service.
Mr. Hampson said he is happy with the response to the mudslide and said he would wait for the official report to clarify what happened leading up to the flood.
As for Mr. Krieger, he said when he heard about the mudslide on Sunday he was "thoroughly p'ed off."
"I thought for sure somebody would have gone up by helicopter or by truck," he added. "I figured somebody would go up and give a quick peek."
Special to The Globe and Mail