Sicamous Creek Trailer Park residents wait and watch while under an evacuation alert due to landslide threat

Some are nervous, others are not, about the danger above them.

Residents of Sicamous Creek Mobile Home Park were put on an evacuation alert this week by the Columbia Shuswap Regional District due to the threat of a landslide.

Officials were concerned rains could create mudslides and debris fields coming down the mountain, which was scorched by wildfire last year.

"Rainfall amounts were not significant enough to trigger a landslide, however, the threat remains," a statement from the Shuswap Emergency Program said Friday.

"There is no estimate at this time on when the evacuation alert might be lifted."

For resident Josh Caelum, he not only has to worry about himself, but his wife and two young boys as well.

Caelum has grab-and-go bags at the ready in case they have to leave in a hurry.

“I'm aware of how the ground has changed. We don't have the trees to hold that kind of thing back anymore,” he said. “It is kind of nerve-wracking sometimes.”

The next lane over, Wendy Jones was busy doing some baking as she waits to see how the situation plays out.

“We're very nervous. You sit on pins and needles,” Jones said. “We have an RV, we moved that over to our daughter's yesterday just so it's not in harm's way.”

Jones said it will also give them someplace to go should they have to evacuate.

Jones is concerned for some of the elderly residents of the park, such as her next-door neighbours, who have mobility and health challenges.

“It takes a long time to get them out of the house because they can barely walk, but we all look out for each other here. We went through it last year with the fire, we had five minutes to get out, but we all made it so we will make it this time, too.”

Paul Thorneycroft's trailer sits at the top of the trailer park near Sicamous Creek, which is running fast this time of year.

He doesn't see the current situation as an emergency.

“Somebody hit a panic button for no reason and scared a lot of elderly people in the park for no reason, as far as I'm concerned,” said Thorneycroft, who has lived in the trailer park for the past nine years.

He says foliage may have been burned last summer in the Two Mile wildfire, but the root systems of the trees are still on the ground, which would hold soil in place.

“It will be years before that rots out and flows,” he said. “Maybe in five or six years, but you keep monitoring the creek and what's up top.”

A few doors down the hill, Shannon Walcer is prepared to leave, but doubts it will be necessary.

“I'm not really concerned about it that much. I don't think it's that big of a deal,” he said. “It would have to rain quite a bit more, I think, before anything happens here.”