NEAR SICAMOUS – A destructive overnight mudslide left a mangled home in its wake south of Sicamous and caused traffic headaches along Highway 97A Monday. The route was closed for hours after muddy debris came down from a bank above around midnight.
“It had come down across a property and along with it it had brought a couple of vehicles and they were laying in the ditch,” says Murray Tekano, district manager for the Ministry of Transportation.
The home was moved off its foundation. RCMP say there were two people in the home at the time but they were able to get out unscathed.
Authorities are still working on an exact cause of the slide but say warm and wet weather over the last week likely played a role.
“I think we all recognize that it has been pretty darn warm in a lot areas of our area, more than seasonal, and that is certainly contributing to these problems, for sure,” says Tekano.
By midday today officials had determined it was safe to reopen the highway and started letting single lane alternating traffic through.
The Ministry of Transportation doesn’t believe there is any further risk to the highway at that location.
“This site looks okay. The material that came down is pretty minor,” says Tekano. “It is unfortunate those vehicles were moved off the land. They’ve been removed now and everything has been restored safely there.”
Traffic was forced to use Highway 97B and the Trans-Canada to get around the closure.
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