Rescue efforts resume at Johnsons Landing, B.C., after massive slide

JOHNSONS LANDING, B.C. – Emergency crews in British Columbia’s Kootenay region met at dawn to consider the most efficient and effective way to search a massive mudslide for possible victims.

Four people are still unaccounted for, nearly 24 hours after a wall of rock, mud and trees cascaded down the side of a mountain above the shores of Kootenay Lake, tearing through the tiny community of Johnsons Landing, about 70 kilometres northeast of Nelson.

At least three homes in the southeastern B.C. hamlet are engulfed by the muck, which is unstable and shifting, prompting searchers to call off rescue efforts at least once on Thursday afternoon.

Search efforts, suspended overnight, wll resume today with regional RCMP officers and search and rescue teams bolstered by members of the Vancouver-based Heavy Urban Search and Rescue team.

A landslide expert and geo-technicians are also at the scene, which can only be reached by boat because the dirt road leading to the remote community is covered by debris up to four metres deep.

A state of local emergency has been declared for the area and several residents have been evacuated to the community of Kaslo, across the lake from the slide.