The Chief of the Shackan Indian Band says he had to go door-to-door in pouring rain on Nov. 15, telling people they had to leave their homes because of rising river waters.

Speaking on NL Newsday, Chief Arnie Lampreau says there wasn’t any warning from the provincial government.

“I basically got a call from Lindsay Tighe who’s my band councillor, but he’s also the Fire Chief of Lower Nicola Indian Band on Sunday night saying that the Coldwater Band was evacuating,” he recalled.

“I don’t think that people were even ready because I had woken a lot of people from their sleep to pack a bag, saying ‘we have to evacuate, we are going to be flooding here.'”

Lampreau says the Shackan band council has given up trying to contact Emergency Support Services or Emergency Management BC, adding they’ve instead gone straight to the federal Indigenous Services department.

He also says the band has also been taking care of members themselves by organizing shelter, food, medicine and emergency finances.

“I am really upset about what has happened but the thing is the planning stages of the province. They brag about having the alert process on our telephones and stuff like that and nothing happened,” Lampreau added. “I really believe that the province was caught with their pants down and EMBC wasn’t even ready for this.”

Lampreau says Shackan band members were initially evacuated to Merritt, before being forced to disperse further to places like Kamloops and Salmon Arm because of the evacuation order in Merritt.

Earlier this week, the TNRD Spences Bridge area told NL News that some residents who lived along Highway 8 between Merritt and Spences Bridge would likely not be able to go home for years.

“Each home, each resident has a different tragic story. Some worse than others and its just…It is beyond anyone’s imagination,” Steven Rice said.

“You can’t make this stuff up. It is a reality.”