An evacuation order and alert for several Vallican properties issued Tuesday following a mudslide has been downgraded.
The Regional District of Central Kootenay says the order now only applies to one property on Little Slocan South Road while five others are on alert. Originally three were ordered evacuated in addition to five being placed on alert.
It follows an aerial assessment by a geotechnical engineer Wednesday.
“They had a good look at the situation and were able to advise on reducing the evacuation alert,” RDCK emergency manager Stephane Coutu said.
“They were also able to let us know a debris flow caused the mudslide and that it came from up top due to some rapid snow melt.”
Coutu said they don’t know when the order will be lifted, but it will be “based on the advice of qualified professionals.”
The address under the evacuation order is 3355 Little South Slocan Road and the ones still on alert are numbered 3279, 3300, 3301, 3360, and 3364. Three more properties were added to the alert list late Wednesday but one was deleted Thursday.
The RDCK learned about the slide between 3 and 4 p.m. on Tuesday, which struck some vehicles parked on private property, although they are unsure of the extent of the damage.
The RDCK, Ministry of Forests, Ministry of Transportation and RCMP arrived to assess the situation, but engineers could not fly over the site before darkness fell.
The slide covered the entire road and blocked people from going in either direction. Coutu said the slide isolated some residents on the far end of the road who would not have been able to evacuate despite the order.
“It was a bit of a shelter in place situation where people weren’t able to leave,” he said. “We did send search and rescue door to door to notify folks that the mudslide had happened in case they weren’t aware.”
The Ministry of Transportation expects to have the road reopened soon, Coutu said.
(CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misspelled Stephane Coutu’s name.)
