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A 400-metre-wide landslide is slipping down a hill in the small community of Old Fort in northeastern British Columbia.
The B.C. Ministry of Emergency Management says in a statement the “complex slide” is in the same area where the ground had shifted in 2018 and 2020.
Fifty properties are on evacuation order, but the local regional district says not everyone has left their homes.
The slide is under the access road to Old Fort, and the Peace River Regional District says the earth had been moving at about one to two millimetres per hour when it was first detected on Sunday — however, that rate has since accelerated.
The road access has been shut off to travel with no timeline for reopening as the ministry says the slide “has shown no signs of deceleration.”
The statement says that geotechnical engineering staff are on site monitoring the land’s movement, and as soon as it is safe to do so, crews will begin work to re-establish road access.
An evacuation order was issued late Monday, and the ministry’s statement said RCMP and search-and-rescue personnel went door to door to speak with residents and deliver the order.
The regional district also declared a state of local emergency and said emergency services access to Old Fort has been shut off while “essential supplies cannot be delivered at this time.”
The community of 150 residents has been the site of previous landslide threats over the last decade, including the slide in 2018 that also led to an evacuation.
The ministry said it’s been “actively studying the site for years” with geotechnical investigations and it completed an options analysis.
“That analysis examined alternative transportation routes, which found that the existing alignment was the most feasible option for long-term access reliability,” it said, referring to the road into the hamlet.
“The ministry recognizes the significant challenges this situation has created for the community and emphasizes that re-establishing safe access remains its top priority.”
The district’s emergency operations centre says in a statement that previous experience from the 2018 slide indicates the terrain may not stabilize for “a week or two.”
“This is a rapidly evolving situation, and decisions have been made in real time based on changing conditions and expert assessment,” an update from the regional district says.
“From the moment the issue was reported on Sunday, actions were taken immediately to understand the situation and respond as the risk became clear.”
It says there is no confirmed impact to structures as of Tuesday.
