Rescue crews have been waiting for daylight and are now working to confirm reports of vehicles trapped between two landslides on Highway 7 near Agassiz. A local state of emergency has been declared in part of the eastern Fraser Valley where a powerful rainstorm has caused slides and flooding on highways to and from the southern Interior. Hope has been swamped with 225 millimetres of rain since Saturday and Environment Canada reports 180 millimetres has fallen around Agassiz and Chilliwack.
The city of Abbotsford to open a reception centre for those residents who were displaced. The city closed at least half a dozen routes yesterday because of flooding or rocks and mud coming down over the roads. The city said no one had been hurt and all its resources, including fire, police, engineering and public works, were out trying to mitigate the impacts of the rain. Due to extensive flooding the Chilliwack School District announced schools would be closed to all students and staff A district spokesperson says the decision was made under the recommendations of the City of Chilliwack and the RCMP. Daycares and pre-schools run by the district are also closed. There is no school in Hope Monday due to a personal development day. Abbotsford schools are open and students are being told to dress for the weather.
A group trying to keep the RCMP in Surrey is confident they will see a referendum on the issue during next year’s civic election. The Surrey Police vote campaign thinks that a handful of politicians should not be making this decision. It should be the voters. Signatures from at least 10 per cent of registered voters for each of B.C.’s 87 ridings must be collected for their petition in order to be successful. Today, the group is planning to deliver the signatures they’ve collected to the Elections BC office in Victoria.
Santa is in high demand this holiday season, and one Metro Vancouver shopping centre experienced a surge of Santa interest so strong that they sold out of photo slots already. Santa is slated to make his first appearance at Willowbrook Mall in Langley on Saturday, November 27. Reservations went for sale on this past Friday, and sold out fast. 780 Santa spots were gone in about two hours. Families can still get photos with Santa without a reservation. The photography team will accommodate walk-ins on the day of. They can visit the Santa team, leave their name and number, and they’ll get a text when they’re ready.
Any employees in the core federal public sector who aren’t fully vaccinated against COVID-19 are being put on unpaid leave as of today. That means some 12-hundred and 55 workers could find themselves with no paycheque and no access to employment insurance benefits. The Public Service Alliance of Canada has encouraged its members to get vaccinated if possible and says while it supports workers, it believes there is a strong possibility the government’s policy will withstand legal challenges.
British Columbia health officials announced on Monday that there have been 1,270 new test-positive COVID-19 cases since Friday, bringing the total number of recorded cases in the province to 213,020. There were 502 cases discovered between Friday and Saturday, 387 between Saturday and Sunday, and 381 between Sunday and Monday. In a written statement, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix said that there are 3,387 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. Of the active cases, 376 individuals are currently hospitalized and 116 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.
New cases and total active cases are broken down by health region as follows:
- Fraser Health: 417 new cases, 1,325 total active cases
- Vancouver Coastal Health: 121 new cases, 474 total active cases
- Interior Health: 275 new cases, 762 total active cases
- Northern Health: 274 new cases, 641 total active cases
- Island Health: 183 new cases, 576 total active cases
- Outside of Canada: No new cases, 59 total active cases
There have been 16 new COVID-19-related deaths, for a total of 2,273 deaths in British Columbia. Of the new deaths, one was in Fraser Health, two were in Vancouver Coastal Health, two were in Interior Health, three were in Northern Health, and eight were in Island Health.
To date, 90.7% of all eligible people 12 and older in BC have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine; 86.8% have received their second dose.
From November 5 to 11, people not fully vaccinated accounted for 60.2% of cases and from October 29 to November 11, they accounted for 66.9% of hospitalizations.
Past week cases (November 5 to 11) – Total 3,445
- Not vaccinated: 1,890 (54.9%)
- Partially vaccinated: 181 (5.3%)
- Fully vaccinated: 1,374 (39.9%)
Past two weeks cases hospitalized (October 29 to November 11) – Total 336
- Not vaccinated: 202 (60.1%)
- Partially vaccinated: 23 (6.8%)
- Fully vaccinated: 111 (33.0%)
Past week, cases per 100,000 population after adjusting for age (November 5 to 11)
- Not vaccinated: 241.0
- Partially vaccinated: 69.9
- Fully vaccinated: 31.4
Past two weeks, cases hospitalized per 100,000 population after adjusting for age (October 29 to November 11)
- Not vaccinated: 40.8
- Partially vaccinated: 14.4
- Fully vaccinated: 2.4
According to Environment Canada, 20 areas across the province broke daily records for precipitation. Cumulative totals also revealed how much rain areas in BC received between Saturday, November 13 at 11 am to Monday, November 15 at 11 am. In the Lower Mainland, the YVR Vancouver Airport received 115 mm of precipitation, West Vancouver received 155 mm, and Vancouver Harbour received 133 mm. Abbotsford got 167 mm, Agassiz got 200 mm, and Hope got 230 mm. Moving towards the interior, Squamish received 198 mm, Whistler received 115 mm, and the Coquihalla Summit got 229 mm. Here’s a look at preliminary rainfall records that were set on November 14, 2021:
Abbotsford
Old record: 48.9 mm set in 1998
New record: 100.4 mm
Agassiz
Old record: 36.3 mm set in 1896
New record: 127.3 mm
Duncan
Old record: 54.3 mm set in 1913
New record: 68.2 mm
Hope
Old record: 34.7 mm set in 2018
New record: 174 mm
Invermere
Old record: 44 mm set in 1965
New record: 13.7 mm
Canadian Forces Cormorant helicopters are ferrying out loads of 20 people at time who were trapped on a highway between two mudslides near Agassiz. Captain Jonathan Gormick of Vancouver’s heavy urban search and rescue team says it was called in to help search for any possible vehicles under the debris. Gormick says 275 people, including 50 children, are being taken out by helicopter after spending the night in their vehicles on the highway. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth says efforts are being made to rescue those still trapped as quickly as possible but expected high winds may make those efforts challenging.
One woman who was among those trapped by mudslides on a British Columbia highway says the experience was scary. Melanie Forsythe, her boyfriend and a friend were forced to spend a night in their vehicle on Highway 7 while they waited for rescuers. She says some people in other vehicles were lacking insulin and others were offering diapers to families with children. Rescuers are still working to fly nearly 300 people off the section of highway near Agassiz (AG’-uh-see), B-C.
More than seven-thousand residents of Merritt have been ordered to evacuate the city due to flooding and a mass sewage backup. City officials say Merritt’s water treatment plant was overcome as the Coldwater River began to rise when torrential rain battered the southern part of the province. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth says evacuees with nowhere else to go will be directed to reception centres in Kamloops and Kelowna. City officials say residents living in odd-number houses should go to Kamloops, while those from even-numbered homes go to Kelowna.
Highways aren’t the only transportation systems being impacted by the atmospheric river drenching parts of the province. Both C-N and C-P Rail say trains between the southern Interior and the coast have been halted due to mudslides on their tracks. C-N Rail says there have been several mudslides and washouts on its line through the Fraser Valley and it’s still waiting to be able to get to those sites safely. C-P Rail says there’s an “outage” on its track north of Hope which has forced its trains to stop running.
Relentless rain set off flooding and mudslides in the Fraser Valley, prompting the city of Abbotsford to open a reception centre for those residents who were displaced. The city closed at least half a dozen routes yesterday because of flooding or rocks and mud coming down over the roads. It opened Abbotsford Recreation Centre as an evacuation site for those residents who couldn’t get home or who had been evacuated. The city said no one had been hurt and all its resources, including fire, police, engineering and public works, were out trying to mitigate the impacts of the rain.