Woman killed by fallen tree branch amid rain, wind warnings in parts of B.C.

VANCOUVER – A woman has been killed by a fallen tree limb in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley during what police described as severe and unpredictable weather.

RCMP said they were called to Island 22 Regional Park in Chilliwack on Monday, where a 27-year-old woman had been walking with her two young children when she was hit and died at the scene. 

The weather at the time was “marked by high winds and heavy rain,” police said.

The death comes as a series of storms rolls over coastal B.C., swelling rivers and flooding large sections of the Fraser Valley. 

Environment Canada issued additional rainfall warnings for parts of Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Howe Sound, western Vancouver Island and Greater Victoria north to Nanaimo on Tuesday, with forecasts ranging from 70 to 100 millimetres of rain, depending on the location. 

High winds were also expected starting late Tuesday for Vancouver Island’s west coast, Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, with gusts predicted to reach 100 kilometres an hour.

Wind knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of customers Monday, but by midday Tuesday, power utility BC Hydro said just a few thousand were without lights. 

The provincial DriveBC information system shows most highways in the southwest of the province have reopened after last week’s storms, although Highway 3 from Hope to Princeton remains closed, and travellers have been warned of potentially hazardous conditions on Highway 1 through the Fraser Canyon.

On Monday, heavy rain triggered flood warnings for Metro Vancouver’s North Shore, just days after last week’s major floods in the Fraser Valley.

The latest weather system was also one for the record books, with ample rainfall, high winds and record-high temperatures reported.

Environment Canada figures show 190 millimetres of rain fell in Squamish, north of Vancouver, on Monday, while the northwestern Vancouver Island community of Zeballos saw 163 millimetres.

The District of Squamish said in a statement late Monday that the rain was forcing it to conduct a controlled release of wastewater into the Harris Slough to alleviate pressure on its treatment plant, and water sampling was underway.

Daily high temperature records were also set in 28 communities, including in Kamloops, where the high reached 18.6 degrees, more than five degrees higher than the previous record set in 1962.

Revelstoke, in southeastern B.C., reached 8.2 C on Monday, breaking the 6.7-degree record set in 1917. 

The City of Abbotsford, the area most affected by flooding, said in a statement Tuesday that it had downgraded evacuation orders to alerts for another 25 properties, leaving 11 sites on evacuation order and 474 on alert. 

The city said its staff members were doing damage assessments on homes that were under an evacuation order to ensure residents could return home safely. 

The forecast for the Nooksack River on the other side of the Canada-U.S. border in Washington state was improving, the statement said, with water levels expected to remain well below flood stage. 

Parts of Abbotsford were swamped last week as the Nooksack burst its banks and the water flowed north. 

Six poultry barns were flooded and an industry representative said tens-of-thousands of birds were killed.

“As water levels in Sumas Prairie continue to decline, crews will continue with rapid damage assessments on the remaining properties under evacuation order,” the city’s statement said. 

“City crews remain active both in the field and in the emergency operations centre, continuously monitoring dikes, river levels and projections, and weather conditions.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 16, 2025.