B.C. draining water off Old Fort landslide, no word when evacuation order may lift

FORT ST. JOHN — British Columbia’s Ministry of Transportation says workers have started draining water from a landslide in the province’s northeast that has forced residents out of their homes for weeks.

An update on the slide blocking the road into Old Fort says the maintenance contractors began “dewatering” of the slide on Thursday.

It says movement of the mass is “minimal,” but there’s a risk of the slide being reactivated as water continues to enter from above the slope, saturating unstable material.

The ministry says it will establish a temporary access route when monitoring confirms the drainage measures are working, but there’s no timeline for when that could happen.