Lions Bay mudslide kills 1, another person ‘unaccounted for’: RCMP

One body has been recovered and the search continues for another person who remains missing after a landslide swept into a home on Saturday and closed the Sea to Sky Highway just north of Lions Bay.

“Sadly, on December 15, emergency crews located the body of one of the residents directly involved, who had succumbed to their injuries,” stated Corp. James Grandy, BC RCMP spokesperson.

“Emergency crews are continuing their search this evening for a second person associated with the home who remains unaccounted for,” he continued.

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According to neighbours, the home by Brunswick Beach was wiped out when the slide hit around 10 a.m. Saturday, bringing trees and debris down across Highway 99.

The slide closed the route to Whistler until Sunday morning, but maintenance and engineering crews continue to assess the site.

Nearby residents Reese Rigelhof and Spencer Moreau tell CityNews they are the neighbours of the unaccounted-for occupants.

“We haven’t lived here for a long time, but we do know them,” Moreau said.

They say they heard the mudslide when it happened and saw the immediate aftermath.

“It was incredibly loud, like deep rumbling,” Moreau said. “We could hear it coming from behind us. And then eventually, once we realized there was something going on, we ran to the window. We could see it like, come in front of us. It just went right by the neighbour’s house. It was pretty intense.”

He says the slide missed their own home by 70-100 feet.

“We had a house in between us and the slide, but the neighbors were like, they had like … trees hitting their house, mud splatter,” he said.

“The one in between us and the highway, unfortunately, was completely wiped out,” Rigelhof said.

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