Heavy rains battering B.C. caused a mudslide in Coquitlam Thursday, forcing eight people to be airlifted out, and triggered two evacuation alerts in the Fraser Valley.
The alerts, issued Thursday afternoon, cover about 30 properties in two areas along the Chilliwack River, just southeast of Chilliwack.
The Fraser Valley Regional District (FVRD) said residents there must be ready to leave at a moment’s notice, citing “the potential danger to life and safety due to an atmospheric river event with high river flows.”
The Chilliwack River Valley, Electoral Area E, was also placed under a state of local emergency.
The Fraser Valley is under a rainfall warning issued by Environment Canada, which noted prolonged heavy rain on snow could lead to the potential for flooding.
The atmospheric river that struck B.C. this week has already flooded and forced the evacuation of parts of the small community of Ocean Falls and Martin Valley on B.C.’s Central Coast, and also caused a mudslide in Coquitlam, a Vancouver suburb.
Jamie Anderson was airlifted from her in-laws’ home Thursday when the mudslide came down in the 1900 block of Pipeline Road, near the Coquitlam River.
She said she woke up around 5:30 a.m. PT and felt a “thud.” The power went out.
“I said, ‘I think there felt like a small earthquake,'” Anderson told CBC’s The Early Edition.
Hours later, as Anderson and her husband Kody Abrams packed up to leave and return home, they realized there was no way out.
“The road was pretty destroyed,” Anderson said.
“There were trees everywhere, power lines down. Normally, we could walk down a steep driveway to get to [Abrams’s] grandparents’ house, but there was no way to get down there. It was pretty devastated.”
The couple, along with six other people in the area, had to be airlifted out by a search and rescue team.
“We grabbed our cat and put her in a bag, and they put a harness on us and lifted us up and dangled us from the bottom of the helicopter over top of a bunch of trees,” Abrams said. “Which, you know, was a little scary,” he added with a laugh.
Anderson said they’re all recovering, but noted that Abrams’s grandparents’ house next door has “about two feet of mud covering the first floor.”
Coquitlam Fire and Rescue Chief Scott Young said Thursday that four homes and two industrial properties were affected, and there were no reports of injuries.
B.C.’s River Forecast Centre has issued a flood watch for the South Coast, meaning river levels are rising and flooding could occur in areas adjacent to affected waterways.
The forecast centre said Thursday afternoon that rapid rises across many rivers were expected.
“River levels are already elevated and soil is saturated as the next round of the storm begins, which will likely mean a faster and more dramatic flow response.”
The forecast centre said the storm’s “extremely long duration” paired with heavy precipitation and potentially significant rain-on-snow contribution has increased the flood hazard.
The rain is expected to continue on the South Coast Friday, according to Environment Canada, while other parts of the province could see snow and heavy winds.
In the northern parts of Metro Vancouver, up to 130 millimetres of rain is expected by late Friday afternoon.
Up to 120 mm of rain is expected in the Fraser Valley, close to 50 mm is expected for the Fraser Canyon south of Boston Bar, and up to 80 mm is forecast for the Coquihalla Highway between Hope and Merritt.
Western Vancouver Island could see up to 120 mm of rain near Port Renfrew by noon on Friday.
A snowfall warning has been issued for the Chilcotin region near Anahim Lake, where moderate to heavy snow could fall before tapering to showers late Friday morning, according to Environment Canada. Up to 15 cm of snow is expected in total.
Another snowfall warning is in place for B.C.’s south Peace River region, particularly near Tumbler Ridge, with up to 15 cm of snow expected.
Parts of the Interior, including the South Thompson, Shuswap and Nicola regions, as well as the Coquihalla Highway from Merritt to Kamloops and the Okanagan Connector from Merritt to Kelowna, are under a wind warning that could see gusts up to 90 km/h until early Friday evening.
