Wind, snow, rain to pummel parts of B.C. again as search goes on for missing person

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This article was published 17/12/2024 (351 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VANCOUVER – Another storm is rolling off the Pacific, bringing heavy rain and strong winds to British Columbia’s coast and a blanket of snow to the Interior.

It comes as the search continues for a person missing when their home was caught by a mudslide that also rolled over the Sea to Sky Highway near Lions Bay during a storm last weekend.

Emergency crews recovered a body of one of the two residents of the Sea to Sky area home on Sunday, the day after strong winds pounded the coast, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of customers on the south coast.

Environment Canada has issued rainfall warnings for Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and the Southern Gulf Islands bringing 50 to 70 millimetres of rain, while Vancouver Island could expect between 50 to 100 millimetres by Wednesday.

The storm has prompted a high streamflow advisory from the B.C. River Forecast Centre, which says the warm, wet Pacific weather will bring heavy rain and mountain snowmelt on Vancouver Island and the North Shore mountains, possibly extending up to Squamish.

The centre says rivers in that area are expected to rise rapidly on Tuesday, setting off possible localized flooding, especially in areas at lower elevations.

It says that because there have been storms in the first two weekends in December, the soil is already saturated and “conditions could generate a relatively larger runoff response to the upcoming storm.”

Winds gusting to 100 kilometres an hour will hit the North Coast, easing by early Wednesday.

Environment Canada says the same weather system has prompted snowfall warnings for Whistler, Pemberton and several other areas in the southern and eastern Interior, including mountain passes.

The agency is warning drivers, including those travelling along the Okanagan Connector and Rogers Pass, of slippery roads and the risk of blowing snow that can make visibility difficult.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 17, 2024.