'Lowest point of my life': Merritt mayor mourns granddaughter's death, 1 year after flooding
CBC
For Merritt mayor Mike Goetz, the floods that devastated a large part of B.C.'s Interior last year did more than damage homes and buildings.
The natural disaster is also linked to the death of his granddaughter.
Ember Young, 6, was killed on Nov. 18, 2021 when the vehicle she was in collided head-on with a utility vehicle along Highway 97C south of Logan Lake.
Her mother, Jordan Goetz Young was driving and told CBC News she lost control on black ice. She was on the road because of the evacuation orders forcing her to leave Merritt with her two young daughters. Ember was killed, Goetz Young broke her finger, and 5-year-old Hailey Young suffered a severely broken arm that required surgery.
In the aftermath, Goetz ran for mayor with the promise of protecting his community from future disaster. When he was sworn in, he held Hailey's hand and told her he would "never want to disappoint her."
But, he's been frustrated by the difficulty of funding a diking project the city has identified as necessary in order to mitigate the impacts of future flooding.
Goetz spoke to CBC videographer Maggie MacPherson about his family and the city's effort to recover Merritt after floods.
The following transcript has been edited for clarity and length.
Tell me about your personal experience a year ago.
I lost a granddaughter — she was killed in an accident. To me, everything else is secondary. That's the one thing that hurts the most.
My other granddaughter's arm was so broken that they thought they were gonna have to amputate it. And my daughter was an absolute complete mess — the window had broken, the airbags went off, and the glass acted like buckshot.
On the morning of the 19th, I was in the Royal Inland Hospital [in Kamloops]. I was on the phone with the coroner, talking about what happened to my six-year-old granddaughter.
WATCH | Mike Goetz recalls the loss of his six-year-old granddaughter
My home was underwater. I had nowhere to live. My other granddaughter had just received the message she was going in for her surgery and wasn't sure how that was going to work. My daughter had just gotten out of surgery.
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