A man has been rescued from a landslide along the Chilcotin River, about 100 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake in the B.C. Interior.
Evacuations have also been ordered for the area due to the “immediate risk of flooding,” according to officials.
The slide happened overnight, with the rescue taking place Wednesday morning in an area referred to by the Tŝilhqot’in National Government as Nagwentled, also known as Farwell Canyon, which is a destination for hikers, campers and mountain bikers.
The slide was discovered by Ken Ilincki, who operates a nearby ranch with his wife, Deb Ilincki. She told CBC News that when he went out to the site, there was a man calling out from the opposite side of the river, saying he was trapped.
“I guess he had been floating in the river and camping there,” she said. “And just by sheer luck, he’s — well, he was injured, but how he wasn’t buried is surprising. He was just in the right spot, I guess.”
Ilincki says her husband called search and rescue crews, who were able to transport the man away with what appeared to be a broken leg.
Gerald Pincheck from Cariboo Regional District’s emergency operations centre said he had been unable to confirm the extent of the man’s injuries but had confirmation from search and rescue crews that one person had been taken out of the slide.
Evacuations ordered
Pinchek also said the river appeared to be completely blocked, which comes with its own set of risks, including flooding upstream in the near future and flash flooding downstream as the landslide is cleared.
It would also affect fisheries operations for First Nations in the region, he said. The Tŝilhqot’in says the river is one of the most important salmon-bearing tributaries of the Fraser River.
An overnight landslide in the B.C. Interior trapped one man who had to be rescued, according to video shared from the scene
The Tŝilhqot’in National Government says it has activated its emergency operations centre, as well, and is urging people to stay away from the area due to unpredictable water flow.
The Cariboo Regional District has ordered evacuations for 60 parcels of land along the river, covering about 106 square kilometres of land, due to the risk of imminent flooding.
An interactive map shows the area stretches from near the southern tip of Beaumont Road to where the Chilcotin and Fraser rivers meet about 30 kilometres to the west.
RCMP are helping enforce the order, the district says in a statement.