Within the wake of a lethal landslide within the Sea-to-Sky hall, one knowledgeable says the province must do extra to observe and handle landslide danger.
One particular person was killed when their Lions Bay dwelling washed away throughout a storm on Saturday, and a second particular person stays unaccounted for.
Lower than two months in the past, a Coquitlam girl was killed in comparable circumstances throughout an atmospheric river, whereas 5 individuals have been killed in a mudslide on Freeway 99 north of Pemberton throughout the damaging storms in November 2021.
Together with the human toll, the storms triggered lots of of tens of millions of {dollars} in injury to houses, roads and different infrastructure.
John Clague, a professor emeritus in earth sciences at Simon Fraser College, stated the province wants to spice up efforts to survey and monitor the steadiness of steep slopes in landslide-prone areas the place houses and roads have been constructed.
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“The federal government has spent enormous quantities of cash making an attempt to raised defend individuals on these steep slopes,” he informed World Information.
“However there nonetheless are properties, I might say, perhaps that have been established a long time in the past they usually didn’t have an understanding of issues of this type which might be susceptible, and to me, it alerts we do have to make a renewed massive effort to attempt to determine the place individuals are in danger and to do one thing about it.”
B.C. Transportation Minister Mike Farnworth stated the province has elevated its deal with monitoring roads, significantly after current atmospheric rivers and wildfires which will have weakened slope stability.
“The province has invested cash in LiDAR (sensor expertise) to get a very good understanding of what slopes are like in addition to flood planes,” he stated.
“It’s an enormous province, however it’s one thing the province is dedicated to doing, has been investing cash in and can proceed to do.”
Clague stated the province ought to deploy extra geotechnical engineers to determine high-risk areas, and think about “triage websites” the place houses or individuals might be in danger.
The reason for the deadly Lions Bay slide, in the meantime, stays underneath investigation.
In 2018, the municipality commissioned a report probing coastal, creek and hillslope hazards, however present Mayor Ken Berry stated it’s unclear what, if something, the village did with the knowledge.
“We’re dwelling on the foot of a mountain, we’re on the shores of Howe Sound,” he stated.
“There’s many excellent dangers that residents reside with on a yearly foundation, so I feel the main target proper now’s simply on the restoration efforts, and that’ll be checked out in additional element.”
Berry stated geotechnical and structural engineers stay on website to make sure it’s secure to deliver heavy gear in to proceed the search efforts.
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