'Devastated' RV park owners give up business over flood fears, lack of buy-out

Monica and Brian Thate will leave behind the Riviera RV Park for good on Wednesday, nearly a year after floods in Grand Forks, B.C., devastated the site.

The couple can no longer bear running the park, which has been in the family for 22 years, after seeing it inundated in the 2018 floods.

"I just feel like every spring now I'm just so worried. What if a flood comes again? Because I couldn't handle it ever again," said Monica, whose parents ran the park before she and her husband took over.

"I can't even handle a sink full of water when I'm doing my dishes. If the water gets too close to the top, it reminds me of the flood and I have to lower the level of my water in my sink. It actually has that affect on me, which is crazy."

As well as fears over the neighbouring Kettle River bursting its banks again, the Thates' decision to sell also came after learning that their business and property was not included in an area that the city is aiming to buy out.

The city applied to the provincial and federal governments for money to help them buy out homes in two of its hardest hit areas — North Ruckle and South Ruckle — so it can demolish some of the homes and turn the land back into a natural floodplain. 

The Thates thought their property and business were going to be included. 

But the couple were shocked when they found out at the beginning of March at a flood meeting that they weren't part of the proposed buy-out area, Monica told Radio West host Sarah Penton. 

"I almost felt like I was going to start hemorrhaging internally, that's how much the stress was," she said.

"I'm still dumbfounded and it's been really devastating, because this was going to be part of my husband's and my retirement income."

Four feet of water

The Thates couldn't remediate the flood damage themselves, because they had spent almost all of their money renovating their property right before the flood happened.

"It was dreamy and gorgeous and every site was very precisely done," Monica recalled.

The flood filled their home, cabin and the laundromat for the park with nearly four feet of water, and left a lot of their land covered in sand.

"It still hasn't returned to its former glory because it was beautiful prior to the flood," she said.

They had flood insurance on their house, but not on the rest of the site because it was on a floodplain.

The Thates have now sold the park for less than what they paid 13 years ago, asking for just enough money to pay off their mortgage.

"We're happy for [the new owners], but we're just having to walk away from it with such a loss," Monica said.

"This is not the way we ever intended to say goodbye to this beautiful property."

'Heartbreaking'

There are others in the community with similar stories to the Thates', said Roly Russell, chair of the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary.

Uncertainty remains even for those property owners within the planned buyout area, he said.

"We haven't heard confirmation yet from from the government whether or not anybody is going to be eligible for those buy-outs and so we have many, many people that are living in that limbo space," Russell said. 

"It's emotional, it's heartbreaking. There's been a lot of anxiety, a lot of stress over the past year in terms of trying to figure out how to navigate this recovery."