Power restored near Enderby, B.C. after beavers cause slide
Hydro workers have restored power to about 700 residents in the B.C. Interior who lost it when a slide of mud and trees took out power lines along Cooke Creek, 25 kilometres east of Enderby.
That's a relief for those who were cut off from heat and communications after Friday morning's mudslide, but officials are still trying to clear debris that has trapped almost 200 people.
North Okanagan District officer Jackie Pearase says it appears an ice jam over a beaver dam thawed in the warm weather and caused the slide, which completely covered Mabel Lake Road and decimated a vital salmon hatchery.
"An ice-dammed beaver dam burst and sent the entire contents of Dale Lake down Cooke Creek," Pearase said in an email.
"The Kingfisher Interpretive Centre was hit hard and the fish are not likely to survive," she said..... a terrible mess."
Road crews are hoping to open the road to single lane alternating traffic for Monday morning.
The washout — one of several weather-related incidents in the province — occurred at about 6 a.m. PT.
The slide washed out Mabel Lake Road and a bridge spanning the creek, isolating about 200 residents on the other side.
Leigh Pearson of Vernon Search and Rescue said a huge amount of debris came down the creek.
"There was a bridge there that is gone, completely gone like there is not even a trace of it left," said Pearson.
"It's big. There's a lot of people trapped on the wrong side of it, unfortunately, that can't get back out."
Pearson said the slide created an "impressive" and "huge" debris field, which members of his organization searched.
"There were a couple of people unaccounted for but we managed to track them down and all is good."
BC Hydro spokesman Dag Sharman said four power poles came down and about 700 customers lost power, which is expected to take about eight hours to restore once workers are able to access the site.
"It's access that will cause the big delay, and so our crews can't get in there until that road is fixed enough that we can actually drive in there," said Sharman.
The washout likely occurred when debris, which was caught in the creek upstream, gave way under increasing pressure from the water, said Sewell.
He said the regional district is flying officials into the community by helicopter, and they'll be bringing along bottled water and satellite phones.
Sewell said the regional district is asking locals to conserve water and stay in their homes.
Emergency officials say no one was injured in the slide but they are keeping watch as a large amount of logs and debris flows toward Enderby.
Dairy farmer Michael Haak lives five kilometres from the slide site and says he's never seen the waterway so clogged with debris and logs.
"It was moving pretty good. It was getting hung up a little bit on the irrigation intakes, and it kinda ripped them out," he said.
The town of Enderby has activated the regional emergency operations centre.
"We are taking every step we can to be well prepared in case there is any threat to infrastructure," said Tate Bengtson, Enderby's chief administrative officer.
About 40 kilometres to the north in the Columbia Shuswap Regional District, seven properties remain under evacuation order after a landslide hit McIntyre Creek last month.
Cathy Semchuk of the Columbia Shuswap Regional District said a consultant's report confirmed there were some unstable areas on a local hillside so the order remains in effect.
Highway 23 north of Revelstoke and Highway 31 in the Kootenays were closed earlier Friday because of mudslides, but were reopened by mid-afternoon.
