The City of Merritt is bringing in inspectors to assess the damage to properties that were directly affected by the floods this week.

Homes will be tagged as green, yellow, or red, and people with a ‘green’ tag will be allowed to return home to collect their possession and begin their remediation efforts.

Greg Lowis, the head of the Merritt’s emergency operations centre, tells NL News there is no timeline for when this process will be completed.

“I am sure there are so many Merrittonians in Kamloops right now who are listening to this and I really wish we had a firm answer to give them but the best answer we can give them is that we are working as hard as we can to make sure that the systems are safe for people to return,” Lowis told NL News.

“As soon as we know when that will be, we will tell you.”

Some Merritt residents raise concerns about lack of supports

Some Merritt residents like Barkad Khan wiped away tears Thursday after another “frustrating” visit to an emergency reception centre in Kamloops.

Speaking to The Canadian Press, Khan said he and his family, wife Afreen and daughters Mahveen and Mahira, were given just 10 minutes to get out before their home was flooded.

“It’s gone. Under water. Everything gone. I have nothing left. Nothing to go back to,” said Khan, who moved to Merritt in March from Calgary.

He says he has been told repeatedly by officials that he will need to wait for a phone call in order to get any assistance.

“I came here now and you know what he’s saying – if you’re not dying we cannot do anything for you. At least show compassion,” Khan said. “You have no idea how much we lost. We lost everything. This is wrong.”

Khan says he has had to borrow money from friends and family just to be able to stay in a hotel, adding things have become desperate.

“Help us out. For how long can I can borrow money and stay in a hotel? At some point you run out of people you can call,” he said. “The hardest thing in the world is just asking somebody for help and it breaks your ego. But for the sake of the family and the kids you do these things.”

About 2,000 people were originally forced to leave Merritt though the entire city was later evacuated when the water and sewer treatment plant went offline.

“This kind of seems to be adding to the situation. On one hand you’ve got COVID, it leads into wildfires in Merritt and then of course now there’s flooding,” Henry Krause, who was at the Kamloops centre with his daughter, granddaughter and brother, said.

“We just upped and panicked because we heard the order that there was an overall evacuation in Merritt and we had to get going. Just pack up your essentials, grab what you can on short notice.

Asked about those concerns, Greg Lowis said the Merritt Emergency Operations Centre is in the process of launching a call centre to better assist residents who have questions about the situation. He also says they’re also going to try to get people who left the community the supports they need.

“We’ve been working here in the last 24 hours in particular trying to talk to the ESS teams in Kamloops. We know that they have had severe challenges processing the sheer number of people who showed up,” he said. “We are going to be doing our best to make sure that the people who left Merritt get the services they need but unfortunately, of course, our priority right here in Merritt is trying to get those systems back online so you can come home where you belong.”

Do not use any water in Merritt: Lowis

While some Merritt residents who stayed back could see a little bit of water running through their taps again, they’re being told to not use it for any purpose.

Greg Lowis says there could the City is testing its water system as it tries to get it back up and running.

“It is absolutely crucial that if that happens to anybody, they do not use that water for any purpose. No water coming out of the City of Merritt’s system should be considered safe at this time, even if it is boiled,” Lowis said. “It is a completely hard do not use under any circumstances for any purpose.”

Earlier this week, Lowis told NL News that health regulations require crews to flush the system for five days once they get the plant up and running.

He is still urging people still in Merritt to leave as it has now been five days without water and sewer.

“Once it is safe to be in Merritt again, the Evacuation Order will be lifted, and people will be able to return home,” Lowis said.

For more information on the inspection process, go here.

– With files from The Canadian Press