BREAKING UPDATE, Dec. 15 — Squamish RCMP say emergency crews have found the body of one of the residents whose home was hit by a landslide that closed the Sea to Sky Highway Saturday.
The search continues Sunday evening for a second person who remains unaccounted for.
More to come.
The Sea to Sky Highway (Highway 99) has reopened between Lions Bay and Brunswick Beach, B.C., after a landslide Saturday that officials say swept one home off its foundations.
DriveBC reported the road connecting Vancouver to Whistler, B.C., reopened in both directions around 5 a.m. PT Sunday morning, ahead of an estimated reopening at 9 a.m. PT.
Emergency officials said Saturday that the slide had started in an area above two residential streets, and one home was knocked off its footings.
They said in an interview on Saturday evening that search-and-rescue crews would be using drones and search dogs to assess if anyone was inside that home.
The landslide came after a windstorm that knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people along B.C.’s South Coast.
B.C.’s Sea to Sky Highway — the highway that connects Vancouver and Whistler — was closed in both directions on Saturday after a massive landslide. CBC’s Sohrab Sandhu reports from the scene near Lions Bay.
In an update Sunday morning, RCMP said that emergency crews remained in the area to see if anyone was injured due to the slide, and drivers are encouraged to check DriveBC for more updates.
Ken Berry, the mayor of Lions Bay, said the landslide had knocked down power lines and gone over train tracks in the village of around 1,400 people.
“We’ve called upon Canada Task Force One Search and Rescue and they have canine units and they’ll be going in and and conducting a more thorough search,” he told CBC News around 4 p.m. PT on Saturday.
“Because we do have one home that was involved, has come off the footings.”
In an update Sunday morning, Berry said that two people may have been in the home that was displaced by the slide. He said several residents had been evacuated, and there were ongoing efforts to rescue others who had been cut off.
Barret Germscheid, the village’s fire chief and emergency co-ordinator, told CBC News that firefighters were in the area around 9 a.m. PT due to reports of downed trees.
“While the crews are in the Brunswick Beach area, they heard a very loud sound like nothing they’d ever heard before,” he said. “[It] turned out to be the the landslide that would have happened, approximately 9:45 [a.m.] coming down in the Crystal Falls area down Magnesia Creek.”
Germscheid also confirmed that the one house had been swept lower down the hillside, but he was also unable to confirm as of Saturday evening if people were inside.
Canada Task Force One, the heavy urban search and rescue (HUSAR) team based out of Vancouver, will be on scene Sunday searching the site, according to Germscheid.
Environment Canada had warned Saturday’s wind gusts in the Metro Vancouver area could be hit with 70 km/h winds and gusts up to 100 km/h as a low-pressure system moved in.
Police in Surrey, B.C., say a woman died during the storm after she was hit by a falling tree.