A Trans-Canada Highway collision that killed two people Saturday afternoon, December 27, also stranded scores of travelers who quickly snapped up vacant hotel rooms leaving about 60 people to stay at the downtown C3 Church overnight.
The fatal accident involved a collision between a West-bound tractor trailer and an East-bound passenger vehicle at Three Valley Gap at about 1 pm.
“Both occupants of the passenger vehicle did not survive the collision,” said a statement issued by Const. Mike Esson, adding that the highway is currently closed as RCMP Traffic Services and a traffic reconstructionist are on scene investigating the incident.
“Upon completion of their investigation and removal of the vehicles, the highway will reopen. The names of the deceased are not being released at this time, pending notification of family.”
Meanwhile, the Chamber of Commerce issued a public notice that all local accommodations are full and it has “a list of about 60 parties that do not have a place to stay. We will be calling them to update them with the following information:
“The C3 Church has opened their doors for a warm shelter this evening. It is located at 1st Street West and Mackenzie Avenue, above the Royal Bank.”
The Chamber said stranded travelers who intend to stay overnight at the church should eat at the many restaurants for dinner prior to coming to the church as food will not be provided at the church.
According to some readers the list at the Chamber may have had 60 names but, according to Linda Chell, Lisa Fik and the owners of some B&Bs “infomally redirected a lot more than 60 others to Revelstoke homes via Facebook and specifically Revysell. So many people in the town are amazing!”
The willingness of Revelstoke residents to help stranded travellers is not a new phenomena.
“We used to find homes for people to stay when all the hotels were full… 45 years ago.” said Current reader Judith Heath Elliott.
