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One woman dead, others missing, after mudslide sweeps cars off highway north of Pemberton, B.C.

B.C.'s severe rainstorm has claimed at least one life. The body of a Lower Mainland woman has been recovered from a landslide on the Duffey Lake road near Lillooet. As Emad Agahi reports, B.C. is surveying the damage as it deals with the aftermath of that atmospheric river that pummeled the province – Nov 16, 2021

A woman from the Lower Mainland was killed in the mudslide on Highway 99-Duffey Lake Road Monday.

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BC RCMP confirmed Tuesday that her body has been recovered.

Police have been in contact with the woman’s family and notified them of her death, RCMP said in a statement.

Pemberton Search and Rescue said they are still searching the debris field following the slide that happened north of Pemberton on Monday.

Manager David MacKenzie said between five and seven cars were pushed off the highway and down an embankment, as a wall of mud and debris slid down the mountain.

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The exact number of those missing remains unclear.

Meanwhile, crews are still using helicopters to search the debris pile.

RCMP confirmed they have received two missing people reports in connection with this incident.

It appears two slides occurred in the area.

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The first slide was reported Monday morning and affected about 50 cars, forcing them to stop on the road, leaving them vulnerable to what crews called a secondary mudslide, which violently struck five to seven vehicles.

“It pushed them down an embankment towards a lower river bed,” MacKenzie told Global News Monday night.

“It created quite a debris path with boulders, wood, mud.”

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On Tuesday morning, MacKenzie said eyewitnesses told them they had seen some vehicles swept away and they did discover a “small number of vehicles on the slide path.”

Highway 99 is closed in both directions from nine kilometres north of Pemberton to Lillooet.

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Drive BC says the mudslide occurred between Lil’wat Pl and Seton Lake Rd.

There is no estimated time of reopening as of Tuesday afternoon.

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