By Canadian Press

Search and Rescue Team deployed for mudslide rescues in B.C.

Nov 15, 2021 | 2:34 PM

Vancouver’s Urban Search and Rescue Team has been deployed to help rescue as many as 275 people trapped between two mudslides on a highway in B.C.’s eastern Fraser Valley.

The team says in a news release that about 50 children are among the group that’s been waiting for hours for rescue since being cut off by slides late yesterday.

A statement from Captain Jonathan Gormick says the team along with members of Chilliwack search and rescue and a geotechnical engineer are surveying the area to assess whether other victims may be trapped in the mud flow.

He says Canadian Forces Cormorant helicopters are starting the first of multiple rescue flights between the slide area and a reception centre in nearby Agassiz.

Torrential rain has severed numerous highways in the province and forced the evacuation of many homes in the Fraser Valley and the entire city of Merritt.

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Merritt Mayor Linda Brown issued the evacuation order for more than 7,000 residents in the community about 270 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.

Brown says the Coldwater River has overwhelmed Merritt’s wastewater treatment plant and there’s no word on when it could be working again.

Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth has said that are no reports of injuries so far.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 15, 2021.

The Canadian Press