Tag Archives: mudslides

US

Mudslides trigger evacuations, close roads in Berkeley Hills

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Mudslides in the Berkeley Hills triggered evacuations and closed roads on Monday morning, officials said. 

A Nixle alert issued this morning advised residents in the area of Middlefield Road, Wildcat Canyon Road and The Spiral to be prepared to evacuate, the Berkeley Police Department told SFGATE. The alert also asked people to avoid the area.

Berkeley Councilmember Susan Wengraf told SFGATE the mudslide in the Park Hills neighborhood occurred at about 6 a.m. and seven homes were evacuated. One home was red-tagged on Middlefield Road, Wengraf said.

“It’s my understanding that there’s no need to evacuate any further,” she said on the phone at noon.

The Spiral — a short road off Wildcat Canyon Road — and Middlefield Road north of the Crossways, are both closed, Berkeley police said in an advisory.

Wildcat Canyon Road between Sunset and Park Hills roads is also closed due to a mudslide. Authorities responded to the area shortly after 7 a.m.

The ground is still moving and trees can be heard cracking from the slide, Berkeley Fire Battalion Chief Bill Kehoe said around 9 a.m.

A mudslide was also reported Monday morning in the area of Sports Lane and the Clark Kerr campus. UC Berkeley Police asked people to avoid the area. 

Journalist Frances Dinkelspiel posted images on Twitter showing a mudslide on Alvarado Road in the Berkeley-Oakland area. “An Oakland police officer just said the Oakland Public Works looked at Alvarado Road slide and said it is so big that the city will have to hire a contractor to clean it up,” Dinkelspiel, the co-founder and former executive editor of Berkeleyside and Cityside wrote. “So the road will be closed for a bit.”

Bay City News contributed to this story. This breaking news story was updated.

 

 

 

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Power outages and mudslides as deadly flooding sweeps through waterlogged state

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Power outages, school closures, mudslides, flooding, evacuations — the fifth in a parade of deadly storms driven by atmospheric rivers is hitting California, and residents and officials are struggling to cope with the deluge of water. Across the state, residents faced continued weather warnings and advisories Tuesday.

National Weather Service forecasters warned of “torrential rain, widespread flooding, rapid water rises, mudslides and landslides with possible debris flows, heavy mountain snow and gusty high winds,” as some communities saw as much as a foot of rain. Rainfall totals across the state over the past several weeks were 400-600% above average, according to the service. 

The service’s Sacramento office warned of possible funnel clouds and brief tornadoes as thunderstorms moved through the region Tuesday afternoon, while its Los Angeles office reported an inch of rain per hour in the area.

This aerial view shows a flooded neighborhood in Merced, California on January 10, 2023.

JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images


And meteorologists warned that another storm is already on its way.

“The core of the system will slam onshore with moderate to heavy rain resuming across much of California today through tonight while several more feet of snow is possible along the Sierra Nevada,” the weather service said, with another atmospheric river headed to Northern California on Wednesday.



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California storm: 90% of residents are under flood watches as another storm threatens mudslides, power outages and deadly inundation

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CNN
 — 

Much of California can’t soak up another drop of rain. Yet the state is getting pummeled again with torrential downpours and ferocious winds, causing power outages and treacherous travel conditions.

More than 34 million Californians were under a flood watch Monday – about 90% of the state’s population and 10% of the US population.

Parts of the central California coast got walloped with 1 to 1.25 inches of rainfall per hour, the Weather Prediction Center said. Extensive rainfall there Monday triggered significant flooding, mudslides, debris flows and closed roadways.

Widespread rainfall totals of 3 to 6 inches have been observed from just south of San Francisco to just north of Los Angeles. Isolated amounts of 6 to more than 10 inches have been observed in the higher terrain near the coast.

As the rain shifted slowly to the south Monday toward Los Angeles, the National Weather Service there warned of the risk of flooding, debris flow in land scarred by recent wildfires and an increased risk of rock and mudslides in mountains and on canyon roads.

And hurricane-force wind gusts topping 74 mph thrashed states across the western US. More than 37 million people were under wind alerts Monday in California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Arizona and Wyoming.

A 132-mph wind gust lashed Oroville, California. Residents in Washoe City, Nevada, were hit with a 98-mph gust, the Weather Prediction Center said.

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“Expect widespread power outages, downed trees and difficult driving conditions,” the National Weather Service in Sacramento tweeted. “Now is the time to prepare if you have not already!”

Almost 92,000 homes, businesses and other power customers had no electricity Monday evening, according to PowerOutage.us.

And the central California coast could be at risk of a tornado, CNN Meteorologist Dave Hennen said.

The severe weather is part of a relentless parade of atmospheric rivers slamming the West Coast.

California is now extremely vulnerable to flooding because much of the state has been scarred by historic drought or devastating wildfires – meaning the land can’t soak up much rainfall.

And after an onslaught of storms since late December led to deadly flooding, Gov. Gavin Newsom warned Sunday: “We expect to see the worst of it still in front of us.”

Two bouts of major rainfall are expected to hammer the West Coast over the next few days – without much of a break between events for the water to recede.

The system is part of an atmospheric river – a long, narrow region in the atmosphere that can transport moisture thousands of miles, like a fire hose in the sky.

The atmospheric river slamming California on Monday could result in a 1-in-50 year or 1-in-100 year rainfall event near Fresno, the Weather Prediction Center said.

A moderate risk – level 3 of 4 – of excessive rainfall covers over 26 million people in California, including in San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles and Fresno, where rain could fall at 1 inch per hour.

The San Lorenzo River in Santa Cruz County has risen 14 feet in just over four hours and is in major flood stage. Parts of the county will experience “widespread flooding at shallow depths,” and the city of Santa Cruz will have serious flooding, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and US Geological Survey.

The threat will shift further south Tuesday, with a level 3 of 4 risk centered over Los Angeles.

“While some of the forecast rain totals are impressive alone, it is important to note that what really sets this event apart are the antecedent conditions,” the National Weather Service office in San Francisco said.

“Multiple systems over the past week have saturated soil, increased flow in rivers and streams, and truly set the stage for this to become a high impact event.”

In Sacramento County, officials warned “flooding is imminent” and issued evacuation orders for the Wilton community near the Cosumnes River before roads become impassable.

Wilton residents also had to evacuate during last week’s storm, when exit routes flooded quickly, officials said.

El Dorado, Monterey, Santa Cruz and Santa Clara and Alameda counties have issued evacuation warnings or recommendations for some areas due to possible flooding and other safety risks as forecasters warned of swelling rivers.

Residents in all areas of Montecito, the city of Santa Barbara and parts of Carpinteria and Summerland are being ordered to evacuate immediately due to the threat of the ongoing storm, the Santa Barbara County Incident Management Team said on Monday evening.

“LEAVE NOW! This is a rapidly evolving situation,” the team said in a release.

Montecito is a haven for the rich and famous, including Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex; Oprah Winfrey and Ellen Degeneres. Monday marks exactly five years since heavy rains in the area caused deadly mud- and landslides.

Santa Barbara County authorities are advising residents to “be prepared to sustain yourself and your household for multiple days if you choose not to evacuate, as you may not be able to leave the area and emergency responders may not be able to access your property in the event of road damage, flooding, or a debris flow.”

Newsom on Sunday asked the White House for an emergency declaration to support response and recovery efforts.

“We are in the middle of a deadly barrage of winter storms – and California is using every resource at its disposal to protect lives and limit damage,” Newsom said in a statement. “We are taking the threat from these storms seriously, and want to make sure that Californians stay vigilant as more storms head our way.”

San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Monday issued a Local Proclamation of Emergency due to the ongoing series of winter storms that began New Year’s Eve, according to a news release from his office.

This storm system arrives on the heels of a powerful cyclone that flooded roads, toppled trees and knocked out power last week to much of California. Earlier, a New Year’s weekend storm system produced deadly flooding.

At least 12 Californians have died from “storm-related impacts” such as flooding since late December, the governor’s office said.

In San Luis Obispo County, dive teams from the sheriff’s office and Cal Fire rescuers were searching Monday for a 5-year-old child reported to have been swept away in flood waters near the Salinas River in San Miguel.

“Floods kill more individuals than any other natural disaster,” California Emergency Services Director Nancy Ward said Sunday. “We’ve already had more deaths in this flood storm since December 31 than we had in the last two fire seasons of the highest fire acreage burned in California.”

Flood-related deaths can happen when drivers attempt to cross standing water.

“Just a foot of water and your car’s floating. Half a foot of water, you’re off your feet. Half foot of water, you’re losing control of your vehicle,” Newsom said.

“We’re seeing people go around these detours because they don’t see any obstacles – they think everything is fine, and putting their lives at risk or putting first responders lives at risk.”

For anyone who doesn’t need to travel during the peak of this storm, “please don’t,” California Secretary of Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot said. “Be prepared for power outages and other interruptions. Have those flashlights, the candles, batteries, charge cell phones at the ready.”

Already, flooded roads, toppled trees and downed power lines are making travel difficult, California Highway Patrol said. Some fallen trees crushed cars and homes over the weekend. On Monday, portions of the Pacific Coast Highway – US 101, a major north-south highway, were closed.

The Santa Barbara Airport, a tri-county regional airport, is closed because of flooding airport officials said Monday.

California is experiencing “weather whiplash,” going from intense drought conditions to now contending with its fifth atmospheric river, Newsom said.

Much of the state has already seen 5 to 8 inches of rain over the last week. Two to 4 more inches of rain are expected across the coasts and valleys – and even more in mountains and foothills through Tuesday.

Rising from swelling rivers could spill over and inundate communities.

The rainfall over the weekend brought renewed flood concerns for streams, creeks and rivers. The Colgan Creek, Berryessa Creek, Mark West Creek, Green Valley Creek and the Cosumnes River all have gauges that are either above flood stage or expected to be in the next few days.

“The cumulative effect of successive heavy rainfall events will lead to additional instances of flooding. This includes rapid water rises, mudslides, and the potential for major river flooding,” the National Weather Service said Monday.

The moisture is expected to sink southward Monday night, making flooding “increasing likely” over the Southern California coastal ranges Tuesday, the weather service said. Fierce winds are expected to accompany the storm as it pushes inland.

“Valley areas will likely see gusts as high as 45-50 mph, with gusts greater than 60 mph possible in wind prone areas,” the National Weather Service in Reno said. The Sierra Ridge could receive peak gusts between 130 to 150 mph Monday.

For those at higher elevations, intense snow and ferocious winds will be the biggest concerns.

Parts of the higher elevations in the Sierra Nevada have gotten more than 100” – or 8.3 feet – of snow in just the past few weeks, the Weather Prediction Center said.

Now, another 6 feet of snow is expected in some parts of the Sierra.

As the storm pushes inland, more than 5 feet of snow could fall along the Sierra Crest west of Lake Tahoe, the weather service said.

The heavy snow and strong winds could lead to near whiteout conditions on roads.



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World

Mudslides and floods kill at least 117 in Brazil’s Petropolis

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PETROPOLIS, Brazil, Feb 17 (Reuters) – The death toll from mudslides and floods in Brazil’s colonial-era city of Petropolis rose to 117 on Thursday and was expected to increase further as the region reels from the heaviest rains in almost a century.

Heavy downpours in the afternoon, when the city recorded some 6 cm (2.36 inches) of rain, caused even more soil instability and disrupted efforts to find survivors and clean up the debris. Up to 4 cm of rain is expected overnight in the region, according to meteorologists.

“There are at least six children here and there may be more from the neighbors,” said Fabio Alves, a resident, who noted rescuers were not searching that area. “We are estimating more than 10 people buried here and we need help,” he said.

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More than 700 people had to leave their homes and take shelter in local schools and other makeshift accommodation. Rio de Janeiro Governor Claudio Castro on Wednesday compared the damage to a war zone.

“I am here hoping to find my wife. I’m sure she’s here. The downstairs neighbor said she was on the balcony when the mudslide hit,” said Marcelo Barbosa, another resident.

There is conflicting information regarding the number of victims of the tragedy. The police said more than 100 people are missing while the prosecutor’s office said at least 35 people are missing.

During the day, the local morgue was forced to use a refrigerated truck as a back-up as more victims were being brought in while other bodies still awaited to be identified by their families.

Aerial view of a mudslide site at Morro da Oficina after pouring rains in Petropolis, Brazil February 17, 2022. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

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Rio de Janeiro’s civil defense head Leandro Monteiro worked overnight, with poor lighting on soggy ground to find survivors. He is among the more than 500 rescue workers, along with neighbors and relatives of the victims who are still searching for loved ones.

“I’ve been living here for 44 years and never saw anything like that… All my friends are gone, they are all dead, all buried,” resident Maria Jose Dante de Araujo said.

The downpours, which on Tuesday alone exceeded the average for the entire month of February, caused mudslides that flooded streets, destroyed houses, washed away cars and buses, and left gashes hundreds of meters (yards) wide on the region’s mountainsides. read more

It was the heaviest rainfall registered since 1932 in Petropolis, a tourist destination in the hills of Rio de Janeiro state, popularly known as the “Imperial City” as it was the summer getaway of Brazilian royalty in the 19th century.

“I don’t even have words. I’m devastated. We are all devastated for what we have lost, for our neighbors, for our friends, our homes. And we are still alive, what about those who are gone?” said resident Luci Vieira dos Santos.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has promised to visit the region upon his return from an official trip to Russia and Hungary, has pledged federal assistance to help the population and start rebuilding the area.

In light of the disaster, Brazil’s Economy Ministry responded by approving tax breaks for both Rio de Janeiro and Espirito Santo, where the downpours also caused damage.

Since December, heavy rains have triggered deadly floods and landslides across much of Brazil, threatening to delay harvests and briefly forcing the suspension of mining operations in the state of Minas Gerais, just north of Rio.

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Reporting by Sebastian Rocandio in Petropolis and Rodrigo Viga Gaier in Rio de Janeiro; Additional reporting by Eduardo Simoes in Sao Paulo and Marcela Ayres in Brasilia; Writing by Gabriel Araujo and Ana Mano; Editing by John Stonestreet, Alison Williams, Chizu Nomiyama and Diane Craft

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

Mudslides in Brazil Kill at Least 94 People

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RIO DE JANEIRO — Firefighters and desperate residents searched for victims Wednesday after powerful mudslides and flooding swept through a mountainous region north of Rio de Janeiro, dumping a month’s worth of rain overnight and killing at least 94 people.

The mayor of Petrópolis, a historic city nestled in mountains some 70 miles from Rio de Janeiro’s beaches, said the death toll could still rise. A similar disaster killed more than 900 people in the area in 2011. Many experts say such extreme weather events are becoming more common with global warming.

Intense rainfall starting on Tuesday evening caused mudslides that tore down dozens of homes on the hillsides above Petrópolis and caused flooding that did more damage in the streets below. Images and videos on social media showed rivers of mud rushing through the city’s streets, sweeping everything along the way: cars, trees, and sometimes people.

The rains that caused the devastation were the heaviest the city had seen since 1952, Brazil’s National Meteorological Institute said.

“What we saw was a really extreme event,” said Cássia de Castro Martins Ferreira, a researcher at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, who studies extreme weather events in the region. “It didn’t rain — it was an extraordinary amount of water that poured down.”

For many of Petrópolis’s residents, the disaster was a painful reminder of 2011, when similar mudslides killed more than 900 people in the region — the worst natural disaster in Brazil’s history.

Carlos Eduardo Ribeiro, 22, was among those searching for missing neighbors on Wednesday. Mr. Ribeiro, who lives across the street from one hillside neighborhood swept by the mudslides, said he had been pulling children and older people out of the wreckage.

“My arms hurt, everything hurts from digging people out of the mud. We’ve been digging for hours, hoping to find more people,” he said. “My friends are missing, their houses are gone, everything is buried in mud. It turned into a graveyard here.”

Petrópolis is part of a picturesque region with a major national park and sheer, forested mountains that have become a getaway for people fleeing the coast’s searing temperatures. It was established in the mid-19th century by the Brazilian emperor Pedro II, who held court there during the sweltering summer months.

But its unique geography also makes it vulnerable to extreme rainfall, Ms. Castro said. The region is often where hot-air masses coming from the coast clash with the colder temperatures common at higher altitudes, which can cause storms.

“We have an enormous number of extreme weather events in Petrópolis, related exactly to its location,” she said. But another risk, she said, “is the way that the city has grown.”

As Petrópolis has expanded, residents have moved into the hills, clearing forests that once acted as a buffer against mudslides and building homes on terrain that is often too steep and unsuitable for development.

After the 2011 mudslides, officials created plans to prevent a similar tragedy in the region. But those plans have advanced slowly amid a lack of funding and shifts in political power.

Ms. Castro said that, in Brazil, the top priority should be creating more robust systems to alert residents ahead of extreme weather events. In Petrópolis, only a few neighborhoods are equipped with sirens that warn of weather risks, while state and local governments still have not installed such systems in other vulnerable places.

The governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Cláudio Castro, said at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon that preventive action was needed to keep these tragedies from recurring.

“We are doing this prevention,” he said. “It takes time, it can’t be done all at once.”

Heavy rains are not uncommon during Brazil’s summer months. But most experts agree extreme weather events are becoming more common. In December, floods killed at least 20 people and displaced some 50,000 in the country’s northeast. And last month, dozens were killed in São Paulo and Minas Gerais when torrential rains swept through the two states.

Jack Nicas contributed reporting.

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Devastating floods and mudslides leave at least 78 dead in Brazil | Brazil

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At least 78 people have died after heavy rains sent devastating mudslides and floods through a mountainous region of Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro state.

The city of Petrópolis was slammed by a deluge on Tuesday, and Mayor Rubens Bomtempo said the number of dead could rise as searchers picked through the wreckage. Twenty-one people had been recovered alive.

Civilians joined the official recovery efforts on Wednesday. Among them were Priscila Neves and her siblings, who looked through the mud for any sign of their disappeared parents, but found only clothing. Neves said she had given up hope of finding her parents alive.

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Rosilene Virgilio, 49, was in tears as she recalled the pleas for help from a woman she couldn’t save.

“Yesterday there was a woman screaming, Help! Get me out of here!’ But we couldn’t do anything; the water was gushing out, the mud was gushing out,” Virgilio told the Associated Press. “Our city unfortunately is finished.”

‘It’s the end of our city’: Devastation in Brazil with 70 people dead after heavy rains – video

Governor Cláudio Castro said that he was mustering all the state government’s heavy machinery to help dig out the buried area. He told journalists that soldiers were already working in the stricken region, which saw about 900 deaths from heavy rainfall in January 2011.

The state fire department said late on Tuesday the area received 25.8cm (just over 10in) of rain within three hours on Tuesday – almost as much as during the previous 30 days combined.

Video posted on social media showed cars and houses being dragged away by landslides, and water swirling through Petrópolis and neighboring districts. The Globo television network showed houses buried beneath mud in areas firefighters had not yet been able to access.

Several streets remained inaccessible on Wednesday as cars and household goods piled up, blocking access to higher parts of the city.

“The neighbors came down running and I gave them shelter,” bar owner Emerson Torre, 39, recalled.

But under torrents of water, his roof collapsed. He managed to get his mother and three other people out of the bar in time, but one neighbor and the person’s daughter were unable to escape.

“It was like an avalanche, it fell all at once. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Torre told the AP as rescue helicopters hovered overhead. “Every neighbor has lost a loved one, has lost two, three, four members of the same family, kids.”

Petrópolis city hall declared three days of mourning. Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, who is on a trip to Russia, said on Twitter that he instructed his ministers to deliver immediate support to the afflicted. “May God comfort the family members of the victims,” he wrote.

South-eastern Brazil has been punished with heavy rains since the start of the year, with more than 40 deaths recorded between incidents in Minas Gerais state in early January and São Paulo state later the same month.

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World

Western Canada braces for new ‘atmospheric river’, as three more bodies recovered from mudslides | Canada

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Searchers located three bodies swept away by landslides in British Columbia, officials said on Saturday, after record rainfall that paralysed parts of the province and led to food and fuel shortages.

Canada’s westernmost province declared a state of emergency after a phenomenon known as an “atmospheric river” brought a month’s worth of rain in two days. The rainfall washed out roads and railways, cutting off Vancouver and the lower mainland region from the rest of the country, and blocking access to some towns entirely.

Another similar weather system is forecast to hit northern British Columbia on Sunday and bring heavy rains to the lower mainland, according to Environment Canada.

The province imposed temporary restrictions on fuel and non-essential travel on Friday to ease supply chain disruptions and aid recovery work.

Three more bodies were found, in addition to one located on Monday, and efforts to reach a fifth person caught in a mudslide have been unsuccessful, the province’s chief coroner said on Saturday.

“This has been an incredibly difficult year for all of us in BC, and my heart goes out to the many families and communities who have suffered tragic losses,” Lisa Lapointe said in a statement.

The storms, which started last Sunday, forced the closure of the Trans Mountain pipeline and cut two critical east-west rail lines leading to Canada’s busiest port of Vancouver, impeding the supply of fuel and goods.

Canadian Pacific, operator of one of the lines, said work to repair damaged infrastructure would continue non-stop and service should be restored in the middle of next week.

About 14,000 people remain under evacuation orders in several communities in the Pacific province.

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Evacuations in British Columbia Continue After Flooding and Mudslides

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Evacuation orders were expanded on Tuesday for one of the largest cities in British Columbia, where officials have rescued hundreds of people stranded on highways by mudslides and flooding set off by torrential rains.

In Abbotsford, a city of about 162,000 people near the border between Canada and the United States, heavy rainfall set off mudslides and flooding in many areas of the city, the authorities there said. No injuries were reported, but residents were told late on Monday to leave their homes and take shelter in a convention center and at a high school in nearby Chilliwack.

Mayor Henry Braun of Abbotsford said at a news conference on Tuesday that evacuation orders had been extended to include up to 1,100 homes. He said the authorities in his city, with help from those in Chilliwack, were “doing everything that we can to minimize the impact of the flooding.”

“The flooding and mudslides have left a number of people displaced,” he said, adding that Highway 1, a major link between Abbotsford and Chilliwack, was closed.

More than 80 families seeking shelter had checked in to the Fraser Valley Trade and Exhibition Center, he added. “This is an uncertain and scary time for people who have been affected,” he said.

Rescues continued on Tuesday, but emergency officials said that high floodwaters had hampered them. Cars were overturned and roadways were impassable. Houses had been slammed by mudslides, and workers tried to plug culverts to stave off the flow, Mr. Braun said.

Abbotsford borders the town of Sumas, in Washington State, where highways were also inundated and rivers swelled to the brink of their banks.

Water from the Nooksack River in Washington State was crossing into Canada, flowing north and east and then pouring into the Sumas Prairie, Mr. Braun said. The water levels had risen “dramatically,” he said, cutting off communities with no end in sight.

“Once it’s full, it keeps flowing over the sides,” he said.

Hundreds of people were rescued from highways in British Columbia on Monday, officials said, after the torrential rain set off mudslides that trapped people in their cars and prompted evacuations.

Officials said that about 275 people who had been stuck since Sunday evening on Highway 7 near Agassiz, a small community east of Vancouver, had been taken to safety by helicopter. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the rescue operation had ended by nightfall.

The efforts in Abbotsford resembled those in other parts of southern British Columbia. Residents of Merritt, a city of more than 7,000 people about 170 miles northeast of Vancouver, were told on Monday to leave their homes immediately after heavy rain caused the Coldwater River to spill its banks.

The weather system was caused by an atmospheric river, part of a convergence of storms so vast that it swept from California into Washington and southern British Columbia.

The weather system that dumped heavy rain and triggered mudslides in Washington State over the weekend was moving inland on Tuesday and was over central Canada, said Mike McFarland, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Seattle.

A second surge of rain on Monday flooded river valleys, turning them into big ponds, Mr. McFarland added.

“We have dry weather today and we really don’t have any significant weather systems coming in for the next week,” he said. “It will give a chance for all the rivers to recede, and give people a chance to recover from the floods.”

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British Columbia mudslides: Rescuers work to reach up to 275 people trapped on a highway after hammering rain

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Up to 50 of those trapped on Highway 7 east of Vancouver are children, officials said.

David Boone, the director of Vancouver’s Heavy Urban Search and Rescue, told CBC News on Monday that fire crews had already rescued at least 14 people trapped in vehicles after the rainy weather.

“What complicates this situation is we have two slides on Highway 7 and we have people that were trapped in the debris … and some have been rescued,” Boone told CBC News.

Officials aren’t yet sure whether they know the full scope of how many vehicles and people are missing, Boone said.

At least nine people were taken to a hospital with minor injuries after a landslide near Agassiz, British Columbia, according to a tweet from the British Columbia Emergency Health Services.

According to the agency, ambulances are staged in Chilliwack in case patients require care from flooding or landslides.

Rain and wind have prompted evacuation orders in British Columbia and flood warnings in Washington state.

Officials ordered all 7,000 residents of the city of Merritt, British Columbia, to evacuate.

“High flood waters have rendered the City’s Wastewater Treatment Plant inoperable for an indefinite period. Continued habitation of the community without sanitary services presents risk of mass sewage back-up and personal health risk,” city officials said Monday in a statement announcing the evacuation order.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government is ready to give the town whatever assistance it needs.

“We’re here for you,” he said.

Elsewhere in the province, several homes in Abbotsford were ordered evacuated after a local emergency was declared.

“The City of Abbotsford is currently experiencing heavy rainfall that has resulted in several localized emergencies within the City. Various small mud slides and localized flooding have occurred in many areas within the City,” the city said in a news release.

There are numerous closures and delays on highways. Transportation BC tweeted images of mudslides covering roadways.

Police in the US border town of Sumas, Washington, tweeted videos of flooding.

One video shared by Sumas Police shows a road inundated with water. Police told residents in a tweet Monday that the road to the Canadian border has been closed.

Another video shared by Bellingham resident Christine Smith shows a substantial amount of water from Squalicum Creek spilling over and rushing onto the street.

At least 160,000 residents in northwestern Washington were experiencing power outages as of 3:30 p.m. PT, according to poweroutage.us.

Dozens of roads were closed Monday after heavy rains battered the area for three days.

High winds were so strong in the area that the National Weather Service reported a 99 mph gust at the 6,680 foot elevation on Mount Rainier.

“Winds with the surge through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, across Whidbey Island, into the shores of Skagit and Snohomish Counties have been gusting between 45-60 MPH. The winds should weaken as it makes it way further inland. The wind change will be sudden and strong #wawx”, the National Weather Service’s office in Seattle tweeted.

Several rivers in Washington are under flood warnings and roads in the Olympic National Park was reported several road closures due to flooding and mudslides.

The US Coast Guard tweeted that it was helping local authorities evacuating residences west of the town of Forks.

“Report of 10 people in danger of rising flood waters in the area. No reported injuries,” the tweet said.

Skagit County officials announced that Covid-19 testing and vaccine sites would be closed Monday and Tuesday because of flooding and high winds.



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Typhoon Chanthu and Conson: Twin tropical storms threaten flooding, mudslides in Taiwan and Vietnam

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Taiwan has issued a sea warning on Friday for Super Typhoon Chanthu, known as Kiko in the Philippines, which is currently expected to pass over the island on Saturday before heading north towards Shanghai and the Chinese coastline.

Chanthu is currently displaying wind speeds of 240 kilometers per hour (149 miles per hour), although it may weaken slightly as it nears Taiwan.

Speaking to Taiwan’s state-run Central News Agency on Thursday, Central Weather Bureau forecaster Wu Wan-hua said she expected to see torrential rain across the southern part of the island.

There is also the risk of intense winds, flooding and mudslides in Taiwan’s high terrain.

At the same time, in the South China Sea, tropical storm Conson is due to make landfall in Vietnam on Sunday afternoon, with the country putting 500,000 soldiers on standby ahead of its arrival. Conson is known as Jolina in the Philippines.

Although it is a much weaker storm than Super Typhoon Chanthu, Conson is still expected to have windspeeds of up to 150 kmph (92 mph) ahead of landfall over the weekend.

The Vietnamese government has also ordered vessels to stay in port and prepared evacuation plans, Reuters said, quoting state-run media. As many as 800,000 people in Vietnam’s northern provinces could be affected by the storm’s arrival, the fifth to make landfall in the country this year.

Vietnam isn’t the only country affected by tropical storm Conson. The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) has issued a Signal 3 out of 5 for heavy rain, high winds, and coastal inundation as the country will see these conditions for the next 24 hours.

Vietnam’s weather agency has warned there are likely to be between six and eight more typhoons and tropical storms in the South China Sea this year.

Reuters contributed to this article.

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