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Heavy rainfall in B.C. causes major flooding, triggers landslides, evacuation orders

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Several communities across British Columbia are experiencing more record weather, but this time it’s rainfall.

Only three months removed from a record hot summer and hundreds of forest fires, our neighbours to the west now have more water than they know what to do with.

B.C.’s Minister of Public Safety is calling the flooding situation in the province “dynamic.”

Mike Farnworth says between 80 and 100 vehicles are trapped near Agassiz east of Vancouver following the heavy rain that created flooding, mudslides and rockslides.

He says helicopter rescues may be required for some of the stranded people. Several other highways have been closed by landslides, including the Trans-Canada.

The heavy rain has touched off evacuation orders in several Lower Mainland communities, and flood warnings are out for the lower Fraser River and its tributaries. The entire City of Merritt, which was used as a evacuation community during the wildfires a few months ago, is now under an evacuation order. That city’s water treatment plant has been having major issues trying to keep up.

Weather reports suggest that by the time this is all said and done, some areas in B.C could see 200 mm of rain in just 36 hours. That equal to or more than the average rainfall for some communities in the entire month of November.

Patrick Siedlecki
Patrick Siedlecki
Pat has been a mainstay in the CJOC News department from the time the station launched in 2007. He's been in the position of News Director since then and has been anchoring daily news casts as well as reporting and working behind the scenes. Community is important to him and keeping CJOC listeners and readers informed about what's happening across southern Alberta and beyond. Pat has been in radio broadcasting for the past 24 years, starting in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island in 1997 and then moving up island to Nanaimo for another few years before heading to Lethbridge in 2007. Pat grew up in the small Saskatchewan farming town of Foam Lake. After high school, he went to Western Academy Broadcasting College (WABC) in Saskatoon prior to moving to the island. Pat also spent several years broadcasting hockey in the BCHL as well as seven years as the radio voice of the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the WHL. Pat has been working at Cornerstone Funeral Home in Lethbridge as a Certified Life Celebrant and Funeral Assistant since 2016. News and sports have always been Pat's passion from the time he was a teenager and he's always been grateful to have had the opportunity to make that part of what's been a fun and long radio career!
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