A rural family is frustrated with Westlock County after a year-long effort to get some compensation for flooding last spring that destroyed their basement.
Opal Wolfe, who lives with her family near the corner of Township Road 602 and Range Road 270, said that despite all her efforts, she’s still out of pocket for about $25,000 in damages, including a brand-new furnace that was destroyed.
What’s more frustrating, she said, is that a year later the culvert she sees as the cause of the flooding is still in as bad shape as it was last April.
“I would like them to come fix the culvert … that would be nice,” she said. “It would also be nice if they would pay for our cleanup and furnace.”
The water started filling up the ditch on April 17, 2011, and Wolfe said she phoned the county that morning to let them know there was a problem.
Later on that day, the water had washed across the road, filled up the ditch on the north side of the road in front of her property, and was pouring onto her property.
“We had a moat,” she said. “From the corner of the ditch to our driveway — it flowed right across.”
It didn’t take long for the water to run in through the basement windows and reach a height of about five feet, damaging everything that was down there including the furnace and hot-water heater, and some irreplaceable family possessions.
The Wolfes were told by their own insurance company that since the water came in from a county ditch and wasn’t a sewer back-up, they were not covered.
So began their efforts to get some sort of compensation from the county, which soon became a battle between their lawyer and the county’s insurance company.
Three mediators at the company have either quit or been fired since the process began. At one point an offer of $10,000 was made, but it seems that offer is no longer on the table.
The Wolfes even got a letter from the insurance company saying that sections 528 and 530 of the Municipal Government Act state the municipality is not liable for damages that result from the ditches or culverts not functioning properly.“If they’re not responsible, then who is?” Wolfe asked.
Reeve Charles Navratil and CAO Edward LeBlanc said while they were aware of the issue with the Wolfes, they could not comment on the specifics because the matter is now with their insurance company.
“Our people have gone out and definitely looked at it,” Navratil said. “We can’t comment on this.”
He added that despite what the MGA says, he feels the county is responsible for keeping up ditches and culverts.
“If we know there’s a collapsed culvert or something, yes, we take care of that,” he said. “But I’m not going to comment on that culvert out there.”
LeBlanc said he knows the issue is currently in the hands of the county’s insurance company, but he could not offer any further comment.
Wolfe said she has accepted the fact that her family will be out of pocket for most of the expenses, but the lack of communication coming from the county is what’s most frustrating.
