Search continues for a second person
Squamish RCMP announced this evening that a body was located in the crushed remains of a Lions Bay home near the site of Saturday's landslide.
Squamish RCMP spokesman Cpl. James Grandy released the news on Sunday evening.
“Sadly, on December 15, emergency crews located the body of one of the residents directly involved, who had succumbed to their injuries,” he said. “Emergency crews are continuing their search this evening for a second person associated with the home who remains unaccounted for.”
Two missing persons have been the focus of an intense search since the landslide yesterday. One person remains missing at this hour, with search crews still on site.
The massive landslide rocketed down the hillside near Magnesia Creek on Saturday morning, creating a wall of debris that blocked both directions of the Sea to Sky highway. The highway was closed overnight as crews scrambled to clear the road, leaving many stranded on both sides of the blockage.
A statement from Village Mayor Ken Berry released this morning indicated that a house had been "displaced by the slide" and that a search was underway for the two residents who may have been at home at the time.
Today's discovery came after another full day of operations conducted by a number of emergency service agencies working around the clock in the hopes of finding survivors. Further details are expected to be released in an announcement from the Mayor on Monday morning.
Meanwhile, evacuations of residents and pets from homes in the area above the highway took place today.
Emergency Social Services (ESS) Director Mary Brown confirmed that evacuees from a handful of houses on Brunswick Beach Road who were asked to leave yesterday still remain out of their homes, awaiting confirmation from geotechnical engineers that no further land slippage is likely.
Follow The Watershed for further updates as information becomes available.
The Watershed is, above all, a community news source,
and our thoughts go out to the family, friends and neighbours of the missing and impacted residents.
Please leave any comments you'd like to share below, or email us at editor@lionsbaywatershed.ca
From Douglas Miller:
I would like extend sincere gratitude to Karen for her diligent, professional journalism throughout the landslide crisis. Karen's reporting in The Watershed was frequent, thorough, and accurate. By contrast we heard nothing from the Village until almost 24 hours after the event! If not not for The Watershed, we would have been left with only the rumors and conjecture found on social media.
It is my opinion that our local government significantly failed the community with its lack of communication at a most difficult time. I hope the CAO and the mayor learn from this event and that they create a plan to deal more effectively with major events in the future.
Even as just a fellow resident of LB, this has been a difficult weekend, waiting and hoping for the small chance of good news!
For the loved ones, family and friends, I can only offer my deepest condolences, and for those tasked with the search, I thank you for stepping up to do such a difficult job!