Months after the fires that forced evacuations, flooded Merritt dealing with disaster again
Mere months after the wildfires that forced evacuations, flooded Merritt is dealing with disaster again, and there's at least one Prince George tie to the southern Interior community of 7,000. Blake Astornio is in his final junior hockey season playing in the BCHL for the Merritt Centennials. Early Monday morning, the 20-year-od forward was forced to leave the home of his billet family, the Pierces, by the rising floodwaters and is now living in Kamloops while the immediate future of the team and the league remain unsettled.