Digging out after slide

Larry Gilchuck hasn't slept more than three hours in the past two days. 

His home, which he shares with his wife Goret Fontoura, was partially buried in a torrent of mud, rocks and trees, shortly after 1 a.m. on Tuesday.

The couple was asleep inside the home when a wall of mud came rushing down the hill across from their home on Vernon's Eastside Road. 

The debris cascaded over the couple's retaining wall, severed a hydro pole, pushed Larry's work truck and shipping container against a tree and tossed a small car against the house, just metres from where the two were sleeping.

"We heard a bunch of banging. We thought somebody drove over the retaining wall and drove into the house," explained Larry.

"I jumped out of bed really fast, my wife started screaming, the dogs were barking, we had no lights."

"It came down with a lot of force. It is devastating." 

Larry's work truck and work tools were buried in the slide. The insurance adjuster hasn't been around to assess the damage. He says he can't access his livelihood.

City crews have told him they would help get some of the debris out of the way so they could get the vehicles out, but apart from that, he says they have had little to no help.

The couple's insurance company has told them it won't cover landslides.  

"I just don't get it, we pay our premiums for insurance every year. We don't question the premium."

The cause of the landslide is still under investigation. 

"There is a reason why that land slid," says Larry. "It will take a little while but, we are going to figure it out."