Three hundred stranded at Mabel Lake, near Enderby
Posted May 2, 2014 9:47 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
ENDERBY (NEWS1130) – Crews are confident no one was caught up in a large slide near Enderby in the North Okanagan Friday morning.
But up to 300 people have been stranded in Mabel Lake, thanks to the slide knocking out a bridge along Mabel Lake Road, 25 kilometres east of Enderby.
Leigh Pearson with Vernon Search and Rescue explains what he saw when his crews were sent out to look for anyone buried in the slide.
“About 300 feet of the road has been taken out. There is a massive amount of debris. I would say several hundred large trees, trees in excess of 100-feet tall, were taken out by this flash flood.”
The slide was triggered when Cooke Creek, which runs into the Shuswap River, was blocked by some sort of obstruction. It then gave way from the weight of the water.
Pearson says the folks at Mabel Lake are now stranded.
“At Mabel Lake, there’s a golf course, there’s a large campground, there’s a mobile home park. Probably around 300 people live there. Right now, they have no road, no telephone, no hydro.”
He says efforts are already underway to clear the road and set up a temporary bridge.
