A man uses an umbrella to shield himself from the rain while walking on the Stanley Park seawall across the water from downtown Vancouver on Oct. 19.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Three people have been confirmed dead and at least one remains missing after an atmospheric river brought heavy rainfall and strong wind gusts through British Columbia’s south coast and parts of the Interior.
Efforts were under way Tuesday to recover the remains of one person who died in his vehicle on the weekend during the first major storm of the fall. High flood waters prevented first responders from reaching the man.
The torrential rain washed out roads, caused localized flooding and even swept a home away. Environment and Climate Change Canada says it broke 14 daily precipitation records on Saturday and Sunday. Notably, West Vancouver recorded 134.6 millimetres of rain on Saturday, shattering the previous record of 34.8 millimetres set in 1970. Records in the region have been kept since 1961.l
An atmospheric river is a long band of concentrated moisture that travels from the earth’s tropics to the mid-latitudes.
Ken Dosanjh, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said the weather event was made more challenging because it was the first major storm of the season for southern B.C.
“It was definitely a test to the hydrological response, the slope stability as well as the drainage system,” he said in an interview with The Globe and Mail on Tuesday.
Strong winds blew foliage off plants and trees, blocking storm drains as the atmospheric river dumped between 70 and 300 millimetres of rain across Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island, he said.
In Coquitlam, first responders on Sunday evening located the body of a woman, one day after her home had been swept away in a mudslide, Coquitlam RCMP said. That woman has since been identified as Sonya McIntyre, 57, a teacher at Aspenwood Elementary School.
On the west coast of Vancouver Island, separate searches for two missing people on Saturday turned up two vehicles in the Sarita River, near a washed-out industry road near the community of Bamfield, said Port Alberni RCMP.
One missing driver was found dead a short distance away on Saturday, and has been identified by community members as Ken Duncan, a Bamfield resident who worked for the Huu-ay-aht First Nations as a property manager. The other person was found deceased in his vehicle on Monday, and identified as Bob Baden, who served in the regional government for Bamfield.
Port Alberni RCMP said Tuesday high water levels and swift water currents had prevented first responders from accessing the vehicle. Officers were working with the Alberni Valley Rescue Squad to co-ordinate recovery of Mr. Baden’s remains when the water recedes.
Bamfield Road, also called Bamfield Main, is a 76-kilometre industry road that until recently was gravel, requiring drivers to be particularly cautious. After a charter bus slid off the road in September, 2019, killing two University of Victoria students, British Columbia spent more than $35-million upgrading it, a project that was completed in October, 2023.
John Jack, chief councillor of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations, said while he didn’t believe any road could have withstood the weekend’s rain, there will need to be conversations about who monitors the road’s conditions and orders it closed – something that has been handled informally to date – as well as longer-term plans for climate change and adaptation.
“I don’t think that this is going to be a one-off event,” he said.
“Climate change is having an impact in the winter the same way that climate change is having an impact in the summer, just rather than smoke and fire, it’s water and floods.”
As well, a Coquitlam man who was last seen walking his dog on Sunday afternoon remains missing, and family members fear he may have fallen into the surging Coquitlam River. The dog belonging to Robert Belding, 59, has been located.
The District of North Vancouver on Sunday declared a state of local emergency and issued an evacuation order for six properties in Deep Cove, where video posted to social media on the weekend showed torrents of water rushing past homes like a river.
On Tuesday, Premier David Eby expressed condolences to the families of the dead and missing.
“It’s devastating for them and for their communities,” he said. “The shock, I’m sure, is overwhelming and where we don’t have answers yet, the waiting must be excruciating.”
Mr. Eby said the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness is working with local governments to identify potential damage to infrastructure and support them and First Nations with flood response.
B.C.’s worst recorded atmospheric river hit the south coast and southern Interior in November, 2021, dumping a month’s worth of rain over two days. Five people and hundreds of thousands of animals died, thousands of people were displaced from their homes and every major highway was affected, disrupting critical supply chains.