Hundreds stranded on Canadian highway after landslides

CANADA: Canadian helicopters carried out multiple missions on Monday to rescue hundreds of people trapped in their vehicles on a highway after huge rainstorms sparked landslides in the western province of British Columbia.

The rainstorms that started on Sunday triggered landslides, shutting roads, prompting the evacuation of an entire town, forced an oil pipeline to close and delayed flights.

About 275 people including 50 children were stranded, some 100 vehicles near the mountain town of Agassiz about 120 km (75 miles) east of Vancouver, which prompted evacuation flights.

Video footage showed Canadian Forces Cormorant helicopters ferrying evacuees to safety.

Authorities in Merritt, some 200 kilometers north east of Vancouver, ordered all 8,000 citizens to leave after rising waters cut off bridges and forced the waste water treatment plant to close. The storms forced the closure of the Trans Mountain pipeline, which takes crude from Alberta to the Pacific Coast. The line has a capacity of 300,000 barrels per day. – FRANCE 24