A number of residents were trapped during last month's storm when fallen trees and power lines closed a dead end road in Black Creek.
Evacuation routes have been mapped out north of the river via a logging road to the Inland Highway and at Saratoga Beach by Seaview Road to Williams Beach Road. To the south, however, residents need to cross a farmer's field to Hamm Road.
"There's elderly people here," Macaulay Road resident Catherine Davidson said. "How are they supposed to get services when the road's blocked? It's just not safe...We need better access to other roads. Having a dead end road that's 15 kilometres long doesn't quite work."
Martin Park Drive resident Robert Duncan says there is no question the problem to the south would be solved if Macaulay joined with Hamm Road.
"That's the main problem," said Duncan, noting that a man had to hoof it through the field to reach town in order to renew medication that had run out. "There's not a lot to do...just cutting across from Macaulay to Hamm Road 鈥� problem solved."
During the storm, Duncan and his wife Carol were returning home from vacation but could not access their home because the road was blocked. So they spent the night in their fifth wheel.
He recalls a few occasions when Carol could not make it to work at B.C. Ferries because she could not pass through construction or accident barriers at Hamm Road.
"It's ludicrous," said Duncan, who forwarded a petition to the Transportation Ministry. Years ago, he brought the concern to the attention to Kel Kelly, a former director in Area C of the Comox Valley Regional District. "It's been going on forever. Nothing was ever done."
He balks at a letter from highways staff that compared the area to Port Alice.
"Come on," Duncan said. "There's only one way into Port Alice, it happens to be a highway. They happen to have their police, they happen to have a hospital, they happen to have medical care. What have we got?"
Linking Macaulay and Hamm roads is "a possibility," said Bob O' Brien, Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure operations manager for the North Island.
"The way roads like that get developed over time is through the subdivision process," he said.
While part of the community favours a connection with Hamm Road, O' Brien said development is not something that can be driven.
"It happens at its own rate, so that has not occurred," he said.
The ministry has received other requests to build a road, but O' Brien said government does not own the land in question, which is private property.
"We would spend our funds for the greater public good on the existing routes that we have," he said.
While the ministry is responsible for roads outside municipal boundaries, the CVRD works with MOT on several items including transportation networks. Comox Valley Emergency Program co-ordinator Mike Fournier will host a debriefing session with emergency responding agencies as a follow-up to the recent storm. The agenda includes the emergency route in question.
The district has also requested the ministry to review and update a transportation plan for the Valley's rural road network.
reporter@comoxvalleyrecord.com
