WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C. — A man who was camping along the Chilcotin River in British Columbia’s central Interior woke up to the sound of a landslide and ran away as the ground moved beneath his feet.
Debra Bortolussi with Central Cariboo Search and Rescue says the man told them he had set up camp with his dog during a rafting trip along the river, when he heard sounds of the slide at around midnight and started running away.
Bortolussi says it “seems like a miracle” that he wasn’t caught in the slide as he ran away over moving debris, which then consumed his camp and rafting gear.
She says the man’s dog is missing, but rescuers are hopeful they might find it because he had yelled at the dog to follow him during the escape.
The landslide is blocking the river, and the Cariboo Regional District has issued evacuation orders spanning 107 kilometres along the river due to “immediate danger to life and safety” caused by flooding as the waterway backs up.
The district has also declared a state of local emergency as it tells residents to gather their family and take anyone else who may need help to get out.
Bortolussi says the man sustained lower-body injuries during his escape, and he’s in stable condition after a rescue operation involving a helicopter.
“His tent, his raft, everything was taken out by the landslide itself,” she said in an interview on Wednesday. “It directly came down overtop of where he was.”
The man spent the night atop the slide area, where Bortolussi says a local resident spotted him and made the call to emergency crews at about 8 a.m. Wednesday.
The regional district says people in the areas ordered evacuated should take available routes north to Highway 20 and east to Williams Lake.
The nearby Tsilhqot’in First Nation says in a statement on its Facebook page that it has activated its emergency operations centre to help those who need it.
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