Page 12 - GBC Spring 2022 ENG

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Golf Business Canada
facility: they used their kayaks to cross the water-covered Trans- Canada highway, paddled over their parking lot, and to the doors of their Pro Shop where golf bags, binders, chairs and debris were floating at chest height indoors.
Corrine Allan noted that it was particularly emotional to see their Maintenance Shop underwater: “We worked so hard over the last few years to upgrade our equipment... then to see our entire fleet of equipment almost completely submerged in filthy water and muck, it really got to me. That was devastating.”
Before the waters began to recede, the outpouring of support was incredible. “Golf course owners are all in the same boat, so seeing a course suffer from a disaster like this really hits home,” shares Doug Hawley, Owner and Managing Director of the Redwoods Golf Course in Langley. Evidently, this sentiment is shared by many others in the golf industry as local courses and those from afar, those not affected by flooding, and those who themselves were underwater or trapped by mudslides were offering assistance in whichever way they could.
“Everyone was reaching out to ask what can be done to help Fraserglen, so I started to coordinate the volunteers, and everything started gaining traction,” notes
Image 1: Water levels from the second consecutive flood at Fraserglen.
Images 2-5: Offices, maintenance vehicle storage and power cart storage left in disarray and covered with mud from floodwaters.
Hawley. “When it’s your own facility it can be overwhelming to figure out where to start first. But having a third party take charge, start organizing and delegating, it makes it a bit easier,” notes Hawley. Clearly, the golf community is tight knit and eager to help because Erica Beck, Regional Director of the NGCOA Canada-British Columbia Chapter, was quick to send out an email to members as an additional call for help, and Peter Szarka, the Golf Course Superintendent at Redwoods Golf Course rallied other superintendents for assistance. The response was overwhelming. Not only was a volunteer list filled, there were so many willing to help that a standby list was created—when Fraserglen was ready for helping hands, entire crews were prepared to assist.
Once the water receded enough to enter the infrastructure on site,
the devastating damages revealed themselves more clearly. “We have to start almost from scratch because everything is gone,” Allan shares. “Every computer, every kitchen utensil and appliance, the air conditioning, almost everything needs to be replaced and there is no guarantee that it won’t happen again.”
The Maintenance Shop, which spent more than a week under four feet of water, was packed full of filthy, immobile and water- damaged golf course equipment with no means to repair any of it. Without equipment, further course clean up and repairs were unfeasible. Numerous golf facilities across the Lower Mainland put aside their end of season projects to offer up their own shops and mechanics to bring Fraserglen’s entire fleet back to operable conditions. “There are lots of people