The TNRD Area Director in Spences Bridge says he is happy to see some progress made with repairs to the Highway 8 corridor after it was damaged by flooding in November.

Speaking on the NL Morning News, Steven Rice says some residents who live along the highway from Merritt to Spences Bridge are also glad that they’ll be able to go back home soon.

But he also noted that not everyone is in that same boat.

“Imagine if you will, if you don’t have a home if you don’t have a home to go back to. So now you have to make housing decisions and stuff like that,” he said. “Do you want to stay with a family member? Are you only going to be out for a month or two or is it going to be more like nine to 12 months? This is where the anxiety level is pretty high right now.”

“We’re trying to get some mental health people in here, or at least somebody in here to talk to some of these folks that are struggling,” Rice added. “They just don’t have the data to make housing decisions. Where are they going to live? That’s a major decision in anyone’s life.”

B.C.’s Transportation Minister Rob Fleming said this week that people along that corridor should be able to access their homes by the spring, when temporary repairs are completed.

Highway 8 was damaged in 23 different places, according to the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, with Fleming noting crews have either completed or nearly completed repairs at ten of those locations. Work on the remaining 13 will be addressed in the near future, he said.

He also told NL News that is it possible that when the highway does reopen, it could be to everyone and not just to local residents.

“We hope to have a continuous route on Highway 8. Information will be informed by what is possible in terms of the repairs and how well that proceeds,” Fleming said.

“The good news is that even with major heavy damage on the Coquihalla, we were able to, in many places where expected to restore two lanes, we were able to restore four lanes. We’re going to look for those kinds of opportunities on both Highway 1 and Highway 8.”

“Our government has been throwing every available resource at rebuilding highway access for communities that have been cut off. We’ve made really good progress.”

But Rice notes that even when the highway is restored, the events of November have left an indelible mark on some local residents. A number of them, he said, had to leave their homes in an instant with just the clothes on their back as parts of the highway were swallowed by the nearby Nicola River.

“Neither Highway 1 nor Highway 8 will ever be the same,” Rice said. “The actual course will be different, let alone the river changing course a bit, especially with the Nicola, so yeah, it is going to be a different landscape and yeah, its kind of a ways to go,” he said.

“We’re far away from having travel restored to the way it was previously.”