A landslide along the Chilcotin River near Williams Lake, BC, on August 1, 2024. Residents can return home after a landslide that blocked a river in British Columbia’s central interior and prompted the Cariboo Regional District to declare a state of emergency was lifted.Willie Sellars/The Canadian Press
Residents can now return home as an evacuation order has been lifted following a landslide that blocked a river in British Columbia for days.
The Cariboo Regional District in central interior British Columbia issued an evacuation order for 34 properties along the Chilcotin River and declared a local emergency on July 31 due to a landslide.
The assessment decision referred to a river section approximately 30 kilometres long and covering an area of almost 73 square kilometres.
The district said the evacuation order for the Chilcotin River landslide area has been downgraded to an evacuation warning.
However, residents are warned not to interfere with monitoring activities as investigations into the location of landslides and the river in the area are still ongoing.
The district also asks people to watch out for further landslides and floods.
British Columbia’s Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Preparedness said in a press conference on Tuesday that concerns remain about the impacts of the Chilcotin River landslide.
Bowinn Ma says the province is monitoring salmon stocks as they enter the system and is also accessing the banks of the Chilcotin and Fraser rivers to ensure further declines in salmon stocks do not create new problems for fish migration.
