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Heavy rainstorms have lashed the western Canadian province of British Columbia on Monday, triggering landslides, shutting roads, prompting the evacuation of an entire town and forcing an oil pipeline to close. Authorities in Merritt, 200km northeast of Vancouver, ordered all 7,100 citizens to leave after rising waters cut off bridges and forced the wastewater treatment plant to close. Continued habitation of the community without sanitary services presents a health risk. Some areas received 200mm of rain on Sunday – the amount they usually see in a month – and the deluge continued on Monday, with roads covered by 250mm of mud and water.
