The Cariboo Regional District has issued two evacuation orders in the Chilcotin River area due to a landslide.
One evacuation order covers 34 properties and 7,269 hectares.
The second evacuation order covers 26 properties and 3,481 hectares.
Everyone in the area must leave immediately and take available routes north to Highway 20 and east into Williams Lake.
The landslide is located in the Farewell Canyon area, about 30 kilometres upstream of the Chilcotin’s confluence with the Fraser River and about 90 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake.
According to Cariboo Central Search and Rescue, one person was hurt in the slide, but he was airlifted to the hospital in Williams Lake.
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Debra Bortolussi, a member and public relations coordinator for the Cariboo Central Search and Rescue, said they were called out to help on Wednesday morning.
“They were rafting on the river when they had put camp out for the night,” she said. “They were sleeping when they heard a noise and started running away from the landslide where they then injured themselves.
“They spent the night outdoors in the elements, on top of the landslide, until this morning when someone spotted them and called for help.”
Bortolussi said two members responded with a helicopter.
The Cariboo Regional District says the river is fully blocked and there is an “imminent risk” of flooding due to the slide.
“We’re concerned about anyone that is on the river because the river is blocked,” Gerald Pinchbeck with the Cariboo Regional District said.
“There is a high risk of flash flooding. We are working with RCMP and Tŝilhqot’in national government rangers to coordinate notification to anyone on the river and get them off the river.”
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