TORONTO – A violent storm that made landfall on the West Coast has left a trail of destruction and chaos in British Columbia, with flooding, landslides and evacuation orders issued to try to keep communities safe.
The entire city of Merritt was evacuated by officials as floodwaters “flooded” bridges and shut down a local wastewater treatment plant.
Torrential rains caused mudslides, floods, rock slides and forced highway closures between BC’s Lower and South Inner regions, with some homes in Merritt having to be evacuated overnight. An extended evacuation order was issued after 10 a.m. local time urging community members in the nearby Nicola Valley to leave the area.
Dozens of homes in the Okanagan-Similkameen district were evacuated on Sunday night, with landslides and flooding hitting the city of Abbotsford, with some roads cut off due to the weather.
Thousands of residents on Vancouver Island and the southern Gulf islands were left without power on Monday, as fallen trees and flooding cut power.
Transportation has been hampered across the provinces, with ferries and public transport canceled and highways closed due to safety concerns around road instability. and bank.
Photographs and videos from across the province show the scale of the storm’s aftermath and the aftermath as rain continues to fall in some areas and evacuation orders continue to be issued.
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