WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C. — British Columbia’s minister of emergency management says current modelling shows water from a vast lake forming behind a landslide damming the Chilcotin River is more likely to go over the top than burst through in a sudden release.
Bowinn Ma says the impacts downstream could still be significant depending on the distribution of the overtopping flow, and people along the Chilcotin and the connecting Fraser River may need to leave the area.
Ma says it would take 12 to 24 hours for water and debris from the dam to reach Hope, B.C., about 500 kilometres away.
More coming.