Lake Cowichan RCMP rescued a woman stranded with her two children and two dogs when her car was submerged in a washout on a logging road during Thursday’s downpour.
Const. Kelly Allan said officers came across the woman about 8:30 p.m. as they responded to an emergency call to help a man stuck in the middle of a bridge just before Nitnaht.
Heavy rain had caused flooding on the road on either side of the bridge at kilometre 26 on Mainline Carmanah, Allan said.
“The fellow drove into the flood and his vehicle was disabled. He managed to get out of the vehicle and make it to the bridge. But then he was stuck on the bridge. Fortunately, it was a bit of a safe haven,” Allan said.
On their way to Nitnaht, Const. Provan Mason-Guy and Cpl. Travis Strong came across the woman in a flooded spot on the Cowichan Main Road about 40 kilometres west of Lake Cowichan.
The car’s engine was submerged in water.
“Our guys pulled them to safety and because the family had enough gear to stay reasonably warm, the officers continued on to help the man stranded on the bridge,” he said.
Meanwhile, members of the Nitnaht community had got a boat and rescued the man on the bridge.
The RCMP officers drove back and picked up the woman and her children and drove them into Duncan.
“It’s a little disappointing to realize that people take these kinds of risks that far out with no cell coverage and spotty police radio coverage,” Allan said.
“Our guys just happened to come across her and she was lucky. It could have been at least a day before someone came along.”
Allan, the Indigenous police services member for Nitnaht, said the road into the community was impassable Friday.
The North Shore Road was closed because rocks come down during heavy rain conditions, he said. The South Shore Road was also closed Thursday night after Allan drove through a washout.
“Fortunately, I was about halfway through before I realized it was a washout,” he said. “I just floored it. I called the Timberwest representative, who called his boss, and they made the decision to shut it down.”
Members in the Nitnaht community are used to being cut off by bad winter weather, Allan said. Phone lines have been down in the community since the Dec. 20 windstorm.
Some people left Nitnaht on Thursday because they realized the roads were going to be bad for a few days, said the officer. They might have had medical appointments or been low on supplies. They will spend the weekend in Victoria and Duncan and go back out when the weather improves.
At Daly’s Auto in Youbou, owner Grant Daly said it had been raining for 40 days and 40 nights.
“It’s fine. From power outages to flooding, there’s no problem. These things happen every year,” he said. “The North Shore and South Shore flood every year. There are closures every year.”
As you go west from Youbou, there are a number of washouts on the road, Daly said.
“I’m getting calls from people who got in too deep, flooded their vehicles and had to get out. They just abandoned their vehicles last night. They shouldn’t have been journeying out there,” he said.
“Now we have to let everything subside and away we go. Right now, there’s no sense in us going out or we’ll be one of the casualties. The water is still running too hard. It’s across the road in a number of places.”
Andrei Shersty didn’t let the tremendous downpour stop him for getting to work at the Renfrew Pub in Port Renfrew on Friday morning.
It just took him almost two hours longer.
Shersty lives in Lake Cowichan and commutes to Port Renfrew. Because Fairy Lake Road was closed, Shersty took the long way round, driving from Lake Cowichan to Sooke, then Port Renfrew.
“The road was fine this morning. I was driving for two hours and 45 minutes. The commute usually takes 55 minutes,” Shersty said. “It was raining really hard as I was coming down the Malahat. It stopped raining in Langford and started raining again in Sooke and it hasn’t stopped.”
