Crews began removing dozens of flood-damaged vehicles on Monday from a New Westminster parkade that was swamped by a major water main break more than a month ago.
“My baby is getting towed out,” said Brian Schock as he said goodbye to the vintage 1970 Mercury Cougar he bought when he was just 16 years old.
“I’m sure it is a write-off,” he said, estimating the car could be worth as much as $100,000. “It’s full of mud. This is a custom car… I’ve owned it for 44 years, so I’ve put in a lot of work.”
The Feb. 13 flood began when a one-metre Metro Vancouver water main ruptured just before midnight, blasting out 40,000 litres of water per minute for hours.
The flooding led to the closure of a stretch of East Columbia Street and initially forced about 50 people from their homes.
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Water poured into apartment lobbies and swamped parkades, including one where Val Stein had parked his $140,000 Corvette.
“That broke my heart. I bought it new, that’s my baby and my retirement gift to me,” he said. “It was like a death in the family, you know?”
Cars weren’t the only thing to suffer damage. Flood waters also inundated a number of storage lockers.
“We lost things that were very important to us. We lost all of our pictures… these are of our kids when they’re little babies and stuff like that. You can’t replace them,” said Doug Wilson, a resident of the area where the flooding occurred.
“I have a tool kit my grandfather brought over from Scotland in 1910. It’s in there.”
Some residents told Global News they’ve been left to navigate a maze of red tape involving Metro Vancouver, the City of New Westminster, ICBC and their stratas.
“They don’t want to say who is to blame, but we want to know because we have heard our strata fees will probably go up, the value of our property is probably going down,” Wilson said.
He said a group of residents have retained a lawyer to fight for them “and make sure we don’t get stuck with the bill.”
In a statement, Metro Vancouver said that residents’ insurance companies and strata corporations are responsible for leading restoration and compensation efforts.
“We acknowledge that residents continue to feel the impacts of this incident, and Metro Vancouver is assisting where possible,” the regional district said.
“Metro Vancouver has worked to keep residents informed throughout the process, including providing information to support insurance claims and hosting public information sessions to answer questions and hear concerns.”
It added that work to repair the damaged water main has nearly been completed.
Schock, meanwhile, said he’sleft broken-hearted at the loss of a vehicle with so many memories — though at least one member of his household may not be too broken up.
“My wife didn’t like the car too much,” he said. “It’s loud and everybody looks at you.”
https://globalnews.ca/news/11085327/flood-damaged-cars-new-westminster/
