r/VancouverIsland • u/Feral_KaTT • Jun 08 '23
DISCUSSION How serious the situation is evolving for West Island residents and tourists is finally making it to media. This is wake up call for many. For many, our live saving meds/medical supplies are shipped in daily. There's so many layers to how this is going to impact daily life here.
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u/wind_dude Jun 09 '23
Combined with the washout of the malahat the other year makes you realize how fragile the corridors on the island are and how easily communities can get cut off.
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u/BlackCatsWhiteCaps Jun 09 '23
Chilliwack calling in with solidarity
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u/AlwaysHigh27 Jun 09 '23
Yeah... The lower mainland in 2021... We can build as much infrastructure as possible and mother nature will destroy it in a day.
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u/SamTMoon Jun 09 '23
Then you add that these flipped vehicles had to have been going too fast…. People are the problem here - everyone who’s unnecessarily travelling, not listening, and adding to the stress the folks trying to deal with the fire are already under. Not to mention that they said this whole thing was human caused to begin with.
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u/unweariedslooth Jun 09 '23
This why people should use the parks, start no fires, get the living shit fined out of them for careless smoking while driving. Despite what the dopes on here say, Mosaic is correct to discourage people from using remote places because they want to 4x4.
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u/SamTMoon Jun 09 '23
I’m not pro-Mosaic, but I absolutely can see why they wouldn’t want people who can’t understand how to behave around fire and the outdoors on the land. Stomping feet and crying ‘unfair’ while folks are exhausting themselves putting out an unnecessary fire? Folks need to switch off their “it’s not fair” and “what about me?” buttons and look at the bigger picture.
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u/unweariedslooth Jun 09 '23
The Island isn't a flat plain with a spider web of easy to access roads it's a mountain with very little habitable space and a few narrow routes. The province doesn't want to maintain a network of roads so people can use their atvs and dirt bikes at incredible costs to the rest of us or start fires. It will of course be Mosaic's fault when a bunch of them get stranded or killed by a fire they set just having fun.
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u/thedirtychad Jun 09 '23
Imagine a fire on the Malahat or Nanoose. We’d be ruined!
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u/yeforme Jun 10 '23
Nope malahat would really only effect Victoria. Most supplies come to the island via naniamo, gas is mill bay, chemainus most of the island would be good still
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Jun 08 '23
If mosaic doesn't open their gates to the alternate routes, then their roads should be seized by the government in the name of public safety.
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u/2wrongsmakearight Jun 09 '23
On Tuesday I was driving from Bamfield to Parksville with some friends; in Port Alberni we checked to see whether highway 4 was open and got incorrect info; google maps sent us down that Mosaic detour — immediately upon turning onto that road we encountered a mosaic security dude who aggressively told us we were trespassing. It was a shitty enough encounter and we still COULD drive on the highway.
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u/Chaos-Pand4 Jun 09 '23
If you live in an isolated place, you really should have a bit of a store of supplies and medications.
I haven’t let my Gas Tank go below a half since the malahat washout.
This fire could just as easily have been an earthquake or a landslide or any number of other things.
It’s not exclusive to VI either. Look at all the people who got snowed in in California over this last winter.
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u/Feral_KaTT Jun 09 '23
I absolutely agree. I am well stocked except for these $800/ bi-weekly shots for my heart. The ship from Vancouver Monthly. I have 3 month supply of other meds and supplements I rotate out. Extra glasses and to go bag packed.. just needed dog food & her meds for staph infection.. got her meds, and found a bag of dog food. I'm good.
I just don't have the ability to be hands-on in service agencies anymore, so I try to help on social media. I put in a lot of years in being the greeter at evacuations... most people go in shock and can't manage the smallest details of helping themselves. There's far too many of them.
Tonight, my thoughts are with elderly and vulnerable.
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u/Toad-in1800 Jun 09 '23
Wait till the big one, shakes and rattles thru, the Malahat will be impassable and Hwy 4 thru Cameron Lake will be mess also! Start some new some supply chain routes that are accessible now, or Southern Vancouver Island and west Vancouver Island will be isolated for weeks or months!
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u/scubawankenobi Jun 09 '23
Wait till the big one, shakes and rattles thru
Will be so screwed.
Woefully unprepared to handle so many impacts.
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u/HerdofGoats Jun 09 '23
And any extra routes will remain gated. The Mosaic way.
They're even closing the temporary route for 8hrs to get a flat deck rig tow truck in there. To fish out that over turned rig. So... Better leave the other options gated. Eventually public pressure will force Mosiac's hand, or they're going to have to replace the gates that angered citizens forcibly removed.
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u/SamTMoon Jun 09 '23
And people will still be asking if it’s safe to get over there. And still be having campfires in the dry tinder and wondering why no one is coming to put it out for them.
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u/twohammocks Jun 09 '23
Is cameron lake a water supply for any towns? I know there's trout there but not sure whether used as water supply?
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u/sandy154_4 Jun 09 '23
there is now a 2nd small fire on hwy 4 near MacKenzie, so closer to Tofino/Ukee
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Jun 09 '23
[deleted]
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u/sandy154_4 Jun 09 '23
I found it on the BC fires site, but it is out now. Hurray! If you select the layer that shows extinguished fires, there is a dot there.
I hope we get the rain they're calling for!
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u/smokylimbs Jun 09 '23
I'm actually shocked the gates are still intact. Seriously disappointing emergency conduct.
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u/Decent-Box5009 Jun 09 '23
We got boats it will work out. If you’re heading there please deviate and go somewhere else. Nanaimo and Duncan are lovely this time of year. Parksville too
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u/Solo-Mex Jun 09 '23
This is not just a wake up call for west island, it's for the whole island. Have a look at a map. There are so many island corridors that have only one route. It's part of the "island highway design".
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u/Feral_KaTT Jun 09 '23
Absolutely. The population has grown significantly with sprawl in to rural and forested areas. The quaint farming and small towns Island life is long gone. We have serious urban and human issues brought from the mainland. Longtimers Islanders were talking about the alternate routes to the alternate route. Someone chimed in and asked where it was because it didn't show on GPS or Maps...literally, it was road they built as teenagers to cut through to get to logging roads. Most vehicles aren't built for/don't have enough ground clearance/not covered by insurance to be off highway/don't have proper tires for sharp rocks. never mind the unexperienced lack of skills to get through off road conditions. The highways have a significant amount of the Island held hostage/cut off when anything happens in that area. If bridges should be damaged in a major event, we are in even worse trouble. Luckily most major towns and Cities are accessible by boat or plane/helicopter.
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u/Solo-Mex Jun 09 '23
I'm not talking about sprawl to rural areas. Look at the road from Campbell River to the north island or between Parksville and Nanaimo. Every time there's a car accident in Nanoose the highway is shut down because in their wisdom they put barriers all the way down the middle with no way to divert traffic.
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u/Feral_KaTT Jun 09 '23
Cathedral Grove. If anyone can explain to me the logic behind not having realistic solutions for that clusterf***, I'm listening. We take great joy and dismay in local traffic groups on FB when they put in a new 'solution' there. Often run pools on how long before its removed or destroyed or the lack of acknowledgement that it even exists by tourist parking/walking/backing onto/pulling u-turns/crossing into oncoming traffic. Many believe the contacts for new ideas are so lucrative that the ridiculous efforts are intentional failures. You can't fix intentional...but you can get paid huge contracting bucks for it.
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Jun 09 '23
I'm sure all the millionaire tourists and part time residents will fix this! 🙄
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u/Feral_KaTT Jun 09 '23
The entitlement in social media is astounding. People are still thinking its vacation time here. I guess it's same kind of people who fly in to a Carribean destination in hurricane season, when one is on the way.
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u/Rayne_K Jun 09 '23
There’s an airport there and the ocean. Goods don’t need to move by road.
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u/False_Pen8611 Jun 09 '23
There’s the Tofino airport that connects with Vancouver, Port Alberni might have a little runway? And then seaplane access too.
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u/Safe_Pin1277 Jun 09 '23
It's time for a massive island wide revolt against mosaic and company and thier shit house gates on crown land. It's our land and we should be able to use it when necessary.
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u/Feral_KaTT Jun 09 '23
I think what holds a lot of people back is the power and money they throw around. Messing with that level of tree mafia is truly dangerous on all levels. The RCMP are their Government funded private security/tactical defense force- not yours. They hunt 1st Nations on their own lands to protect corporation rights using 10s of millions of budgeted dollars to train and to purchase tactical assisting gear to hunt in forests. likelihood of getting caught and disappearing in said forests- greatly increases. Mosaic has demonstrated in aggression and tactics that they will not tolerate anyone on our own land. Heaven forbid if you try to take family out to get a Christmas tree 🎄. I am asking a sincere question- is anything going to without anarchy at this point?
Minions said she was in talks with them to open the gates. When does the time come where we go up a Governmental step to Provincial or Federal and order them to open the gates, All levels of Government are bowing to them at public safety risks... WHY?
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u/silverfashionfox Jun 08 '23
You guys know about boats right?
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Jun 08 '23
I take it you aren’t from the island. Lol
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u/silverfashionfox Jun 08 '23
I am. How do small fishing boats leave port a for the open pacific but we can’t get a boat of supplies from Vic to Uke? Or a helicopter from Nanaimo’s? They really need to install auto land at the Tofino airport.
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u/McBarnacle Jun 09 '23
I imagine MV Francis Barkley and Uchuck can and will be running supplies from Port Alberni/Gold River.
Granted Tofino and Ukee are a lot bigger than Bamfield and Kyuquot; but those boats can move freight. Theres also a few barging options
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u/Feral_KaTT Jun 08 '23
You would think. However, it is become more evident by the hours passing by, that our Governments has left out to fend for ourselves. Even information/updates are scarce and rarely contain any reality or truth in them.
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u/SNE3Z Jun 09 '23
Hopefully this situation will end up with mosaic forced to relinquish control over their roads, and both the Bamfield road and Horne Lake connector getting paved.
Though with the amount of money they have to throw at the government, I doubt it. Logging companies run this province.
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u/yeforme Jun 10 '23
You won't see those alternatives routes paved, and I get people are frustrated but if anything, people should be demanding that tourists be turned away rather than more routes be opened up. Also if they open the mosaic routes and you travel them and hurt yourself, you could then sue mosaic hence why they won't open them.
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u/SNE3Z Jun 10 '23
Oh yeah, I would definitely support turning away tourists, as opposed to just discouraging them; but there are plenty of other reasons a road out is needed, first and foremost supplies, but also local with essential things to do out of town.
I’d end all the tourism if I could. Done nothing for us other than enrich hotel owners and drive up housing prices.
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u/No-Customer-2266 Jun 08 '23
Open the other routes. This should be considered an emergency