There was good news Monday for the hundreds of people trapped at Sasquatch Mountain Resort, after a landslide took out the only road to the area.
The Ministry of Transportation said emergency road repairs had progressed enough to allow a brief one-way opening.
A pilot vehicle escorted about 100 drivers down from the resort between noon and 2:30 p.m., according to the ministry.
Officials with the resort said locals would be allowed down first to get supplies. A return convoy was scheduled for residents around 5:30 p.m.
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The landslide took place Friday night, seriously damaging a section of Hemlock Valley Road, trapping about 500 people and knocking out power to the resort.
The Ministry of Transportation had initially said it could take up to five days to restore a single lane of traffic to the resort.
BC Hydro crews were able to restore power early Sunday afternoon.
About 200 people have already been flown out from the resort by helicopter, at a $150 per-person charge.
Chilliwack-Kent MLA Laurie Throness says those people should be reimbursed, given that evacuees are not charged for their rescue in other situations.
“That’s the provincial policy and we ought to be following that policy in the case of Hemlock as well,” he told Global News.
Throness is also advocating for the road to be upgraded while repairs take place, to accommodate future development in the Hemlock Valley.
“This is the perfect time to do it, while we’re fixing that road, and about 1,500 metres were taken out, that’s over a kilometre, why don’t we do the rest?” he said.
“I think it’s high time we do that.”
The ministry says crews will continue to work 24 hours a day to repair the road until it can be safely opened to single-lane alternating traffic.
It said subject to weather, it hoped to achieve that goal within the next several days.
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