One longtime village resident remains missing after a fatal landslide Saturday that swept their home off of its foundation.
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The landslide swept through Battani Creek, a stream that runs down the steep slopes above Brunswick Beach, around 10:30 a.m. Saturday morning, pushing one house off its foundation and washing a substantial debris field under and onto Highway 99 in the area of the Magnesia Creek Bridge.
Two residents, identified by a family member as David and Barbara Enns, were home at the time. The body of David Enns was recovered Sunday by crews from the Canadian Task Force 1 heavy urban search and rescue team along with local emergency services.
“The reports as of Saturday (were) that the debris had taken the channel down to bedrock and that things seemed to be stable,” Berry said about initial geotechnical assessments.
However, “after 48 hours, it became a safety issue for (search crews) to continue, and that’s why we needed to have it reassessed,” Berry said.
Berry declared a local state of emergency late Sunday, which allowed Lions Bay to rally provincial resources and set up an emergency operations centre, which is now staffed by officials from the village, Metro Vancouver regional district and the province to oversee recovery efforts.
On Tuesday afternoon, emergency operations centre director Ross Blackwell said a geotechnical team had done a walk-through of the disaster zone, but had not completed its assessment report by later in the day. He said it might be Wednesday before they have an answer.
“Ultimately, what we’re doing is assessing the whole debris-flow corridor for risk,” said Blackwell, who is also Lions Bay’s chief administrative officer. “That means hazard trees, that means slope stability, debris stability.”
“Unfortunately, (conditions) are a bit dynamic, and of course the weather doesn’t help,” he added.
Environment Canada’s forecast was for an atmospheric river and winter storm conditions to persist through to Wednesday morning, bringing 50 mm to 70 mm of rain.
“If this rain that we are now having causes other things to happen on that slope, then (when recovery work resumes) is anybody’s guess,” Blackwell said.
Berry added that a structural engineer was also brought in to assess damage to a bridge across Magnesia Creek to connect Glendale Avenue and Crystal Falls Road.
Earlier news reports said that the bridge had been destroyed, but Berry said it remained intact and experts are determining whether it can be used to move in heavy equipment in aid of the search and recovery efforts.
In the meantime, residents between the addresses of 51 to 61 Brunswick Beach Road remain on an evacuation alert until the geotechnical work is complete, Blackwell said.
He added that Metro Vancouver’s all-incident response team has been on site since Saturday and “has been absolutely instrumental” in helping mount search and recovery efforts.
Berry said the team from Canadian Task Force 1, which was on scene with infrared drones, cameras and five search dogs, had high compliments for local emergency volunteers.
“They said Lions Bay Fire and Rescue and search and rescue are some of the best they’ve worked with,” Berry said.