Local man makes it through B.C. flooding and back to Claresholm

By Rob Vogt
Local Press Writer
Last week Chad Meek was busy helping his mom clean up after the recent windstorm laid waste to her yard.
He was home after he had been trapped in the recent floods in B.C. which left him stranded until a kind-hearted truck driver helped him back to Claresholm.
Meek works at the Burnaby Terminal on the Trans Mountain pipeline
expansion project and was headed back to work on Sunday, Nov. 14, after a week off at home in Claresholm.
He had seen flooding but got through one part of flooded road.
A few kilometres later, about 17 kilometres from Hope, B.C., he encountered a line-up on the highway, where everyone was stopped.
“I didn’t know what was going on,” he described. “No one was saying anything.”
At around 11 p.m., he got out of his vehicle in the pitch black.
He saw a landslide had occurred in front of him and water was rushing – so he was going nowhere.
“I slept in my car that first night,” Meek said.
He had no cell phone service, so he found someone who was able to call his mom, Julia Moore, to tell her he was okay.
After he woke up, he moved to higher ground and saw the water had risen six inches up his tires.
A truck came by and the driver told him to get out now or lose everything, so Meek packed a bag and hopped in the truck.
By then the rushing water was at least 500 feet long and five feet deep.
Meek said that truck ended up in the shop due to flood damage.
Needless to say, he was taken to Manning Park Resort, an evacuation centre, where there were already between 20 and 25 people, he got to sleep on a mattress.
There was a meeting the next day at 1 p.m. to update the situation.
Accommodations were $300 per night, and Meek could not afford that. He was also told they would be running out of food by the next morning – so essentially he had to leave.
His vehicle was stuck back near Hope, but the road had opened to Kelowna.
Meek found someone
going there so he jumped in with them.
Once in Kelowna, he began to walk through town, looking for a hotel.
He came upon two, but did not have his credit card, so he kept looking. Finally, he found a place to bunk down for the night.
The next day, he was figuring out what to do next when he saw a semi stopped at a red light.
He ran up to the truck.
“Where you headed?” he asked.
“Alberta,” was the response.
Meek asked the driver if he could trouble him for a ride.
The driver obliged, taking him all the way to Calgary.
Awaiting them was Meek’s mom, Julia Moore.
She had a hug for Chad, and a bunch of baking for the driver.
“She gave me the biggest hug,” Meek said.
He was still not sure how he was getting back, with his car still on the side of the road, but at least he was safe.
“It was crazy,” Meek said. “Definitely an experience I never thought I’d have.