ZEBALLOS, B.C. – Many Zeballos residents are now on their seventh month under an evacuation order.
But Emergency Management BC (EMBC) is helping the village conduct the study on the slope instability.
“The field work portion (of the study) has been finished. EMBC is trying to get the information back to us. They’re working on a draft form right now,” Mayor Julie Colborne said.
She added that there is no word yet on when the village council will get the study results.
“(EMBC) is also working with the Ministry of Transportation because of the piece of the road that they’ve got closed off. Between us three agencies, we’re trying to get the best information we possibly can.”
Colborne said that once they have information, they can decide how to move forward.
The Village of Zeballos is also one of the North Island communities that received a provincial grant for emergency operations.
RELATED: North Island communities receive provincial funding for emergency operation
Colborne said that during the wildfire, it wasn’t possible to have an emergency operations centre in the village as they didn’t have trained staff. She said the grant will be used to train council members.
“We also had two grants last year, for $25, 000 each and those were for emergency supplies and a generator. This new grant will also have a portable, deployable emergency package with it.”
She said that council members have already started emergency training, and local firefighters are receiving training to be able to fight wildfires.
“We’re in a really high-risk area. We may get a tsunami, we may get an earthquake. We’ve got to be prepared, and we were finding we weren’t quite there yet.”
