At least four people lost their lives after devastating mudslides and landslides in the wake of a severe storm in B.C. in late October. Scientists say they could become more common.
One of them was Sonya McIntyre, 57, a beloved local elementary school teacher whose house was completely ripped from its foundation in a mudslide in the Quarry Road area. It took rescuers days to confirm that she had died.
Accompanied by geoscientists, Radio-Canada’s Camille Vernet went to the site where McIntyre’s house once stood to find wreckage and debris still standing there — along with a small memorial to the dead woman.
Scientists say that the frequency of atmospheric rivers, which brought hundreds of millimetres of rain to Coquitlam and caused the mudslides, is likely to increase as the world warms.
WATCH | Radio-Canada goes to the site of a fatal B.C. mudslide: Geoscientists investigate what factors led part of a mountain to give way …