Evacuations ordered in B.C. as water flows over landslide that dammed Chilcotin River

The B.C. government says people along the banks of the Chilcotin and Fraser Rivers downstream from a massive landslide should evacuate immediately after water began flowing through the slide.

The B.C. government says it's "extremely unsafe" to be near the banks of the Chilcotin and Fraser rivers both upstream and downstream from a massive landslide after water started flowing through the slide early Monday.

Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma says the water breaching the dam caused by the slide will cause river bank instability, although the chances of a worst-case scenario are "decreasing."

Ma says people should stay away and off the waters as officials monitor the flow downstream of the slide, which may impact the Farewell Canyon Bridge, about 22 kilometres downstream.

Officials say about 15 properties in the Cariboo and Thomson River Regional Districts are on evacuation order or alert, but Ma says people "recreating" on the rivers should leave immediately and not be on the water with boats or anywhere near where the rivers are expected to swell.  

Connie Chapman with the province's water management branch says the "pulse" of water from the dam breach will likely erode river banks, and carry debris from the slide.

Chapman says the water early Monday carved about a 15 metre channel through the slide material, and then began widening with water flows increasing by the hour comparable to spring runoff levels that will cause the rivers to swell downstream in the coming days.

An emergency alert issued by the province Monday said anyone along the banks of the rivers from Hanceville to the Fraser River, down to the Gang Ranch Road Bridge south of Williams Lake, must leave. Flooding and moving debris pose "a threat to human life," the alert said.