A wall of mud, water and rocks roared down a mountain in southern British Columbia Sunday, obliterating several homes, bright green orchards and a section of the province's longest highway.
Damage estimates varied wildly in the hours after the slide hit, but the RCMP said approximately five homes were struck at about 2:20 p.m. local time near Testalinden Creek, just south of Oliver, B.C.
District officials and search and rescue teams worked feverishly to contact those in the affected homes. Late Sunday police said searches were concluded and all residents where accounted for with no deaths or injuries.
“We had five homes that were destroyed with approximately two others affected when this slide descended the west slope of the valley,” said RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk.
“Given the debris and size of the slide, it is quite amazing that nobody was hurt or killed,” said Moskaluk.
He added that some seasonal agricultural workers reside in the area and the RCMP is confident all are accounted for. Moskaluk said he did not know how many workers might have been in the area at the time.
Earlier Sunday, when Mike Luckhurst first heard the cracking branches on the hillside near his yard, he thought a tractor was at work removing foliage.
Then he turned around and saw trees falling like bowling pins, as a massive mudslide covered the hill just a half-kilometre away. A torrent of dirt and debris flowed down the hill, taking out his friend's house.
“It just exploded off the foundations,” Mr. Luckhurst said. “The power of the mud and water was mind-boggling,” he said.
Just after 2 p.m. Sunday, a wall of sand, mud and rock tore through a rural area of the Okanagan Valley just south of the small town of Oliver, in the heart of British Columbia wine country, destroying at least five houses and uprooting orchards and vineyards.
Heavy rains, estimated to be as much as two times the seasonal average, are being blamed for the giant slide, which sent debris from the mountains down the gushing Testalinden Creek into the farms and orchards below.
“It’s a sea of mud and water and it’s still flowing,” said Pam Luckhurst, who, with her husband, watched a house float away in the moments after the creek burst through the side of the hill, pulling down rocks and snapping trees. The gushing water sounded like a waterfall, she said.
Houses are partially barried in mud from a mudslide that happened just south of Oliver, in British Columbia, near the Testa Linda Creek.
Ms. Luckhurst, who owns a local vineyard, said from her house she can see five homes that have been destroyed. “Basically, what was a creek has cut a channel and is a whole new river,” she said.
From his farm on the south shore of the creek, opposite the slide, Andre Miller has a bird’s eye view of the devastation, which took out two of his neighbours’ houses, and left a deep trail of mud, rocks and sand strewn for about a kilometre across the highway.
“It’s amazing, the amount of water that’s coming through,” said Mr. Miller, a town councillor who dashed home when he heard news of the mudslide.
What he found was nothing like the familiar landscape he left that morning. Looking across the creek, he said the only sign of his neighbour’s house was the red leaves of the ornamental tree that stood in their garden. Half of another house was gone and what remained was listing at an angle. The ground was covered with between 15 to 25 feet of mud, he estimated.
“It’s a real mess, a huge disaster,” said Mr. Patton. “A lot of orchard land has been wiped right out. I’ve heard there was a five-minute warning.”
There is an evacuation alert for some residents in case the creek changes course, Mr. Patton said. “But the worst is pretty well over."
As he looked out on the damage the slide had caused, Mr. Hampson said he'd never seen anything quite like it.
“It's pretty hard to describe something like that,” he said.
He said the highway would be closed indefinitely.
An emergency operations centre for evacuated residents was set up in Oliver. Mr. Patton said 10 people had registered at the centre by late Sunday. He said whatever help area residents need, they'll get.
“We've got a great community,” he said.
The slide appears to have begun after a build-up behind some debris in the Testalinda Creek, Mr. Hampson said. Water behind the blockage broke through under considerable pressure, cascading down a steep hillside, picking up mud, sand, trees and rocks. As the flow hit flat land, the torrent of water spread out up to 400 feet, spilling over the main highway between Penticton and the Canada-U.S. border, level a deep trail of mud in its wake, he said.
Although the mudslide was outside the city, he received a call from Oliver's municipal manager about 15 minutes after it occurred because the highway leading south was blocked. From a hilltop, he could see five houses in the debris-strewn path of the mudslide with significant damage.
With files from Rod Mickleburgh, Robert Matas and The Canadian Press
