British Columbia floods The body of a found woman

(Vancouver) The body of a woman was found in a mud flow on Route 99 near Lillooet, British Columbia, following historical precipitation in the province, said the RCMP.

Police said the rescue staff continued their research while the Coroners service is also carrying out an investigation.

Sergente Janelle Shoihet said the total number of missing people and lost vehicles had not yet been confirmed, but the investigators have received information of two other people who have been missing.

"We ask anyone who has witnessed the event or who thinks that their loved one is missing and has not yet been able to contact them to contact the Pemberton or Lillooet RCMP units",she said in a written statement.

David Mackenzie, director of research and rescue of the Pemberton district, confirmed two deaths in the mud flow, about 42 kilometers south of Lillooet.

"Our team has been able to recover a couple of people so far, but the rescue operation is still in progress and I cannot really say more," he added, although it is notstill clear if the death of the woman confirmed by the RCMP was one of the two new victims.

Teams were called to the scene around noon on Monday and research is continuing.

Several people were able to get out of their car, said Mr..Mackenzie, adding that the search conditions were difficult and that heavy equipment would be necessary to remove the big debris that block the passage on the "Mountain Highway".

"It's a lot of mud, debris, rocks, trees, broken trees.When a mud flow falls, it is obviously very important and it involves sneaking in the mud, it is quite difficult ".

A rescue operation of anyone who may have been buried by two landslides is also underway in the area of Highway 7 near Agassiz.About 300 people spent the night in their vehicles and were transported by helicopter in a safe place on Monday.

Jonathan Gormick, information manager at the Vancouver urban research and rescue team, said that the roadway is released from vehicles or people likely to be trapped, the efforts of the teams will gofocus on landslides.

Province Prime Minister John Horgan stressed that the tragedy caused by unprecedented rains had left "sadness in my heart".

Speaking from his office during a virtual event, M.Horgan said that the impact of the "rain river" over a record period of 24 hours reflected the ravages of climate change.

The Minister of Public Security MikeFarnworth informed that the ministers of the cabinet will meet on Wednesday to examine the option of declaring the state of emergency on the level of the province.

He added that provisions and equipment such as food, camp beds and blankets would be delivered to the city of Hope, which supports nearly 1,100 people forced to leave their home.

"An access route is under construction at the moment in order to reconnect Hope soon with the rest of the Lower Mainland," said Mr..Farnworth."One of our main priorities is to ensure that there is a flow of provisions and equipment so that people can buy food and essential goods in areas where roads or railways are flooded ordamaged ".

A new evacuation order was launched Tuesday for a section of the Fraser Valley, in Abbotsford.

A message from the Abbotsford police on social networks indicates that all residents living in the Sumas meadow, to the Chilliwack limit, must immediately leave the sector.Water levels in this region go up very quickly.

The mayor of Abbotsford, Henry Braun, indicated Tuesday that the impractical highways added to the chaos while the police and the firefighters were trying to direct people to the evacuation centers.

"It breaks my heart to see what's going on in our city," he said.

A sunny sky followed two days of torrential rains which reached the typical quantity of precipitation in the region for the whole month of November, but the mayor mentioned that the water continues to mount and that highway 1 will be blocked during atime.

"People have to prepare for not being able to travel for a few days.Even in this case, there are gullies further in the interior, on the Coquihalla highway and the Canyon of Fraser.There will be no circulation of trucks anytime soon, nor trains elsewhere ".

M.Braun warned people attempted to drive in what could be extremely deep ditches, adding that he feared not getting enough information from Washington State officials on water levelswhich have increased considerably due to the overflow of the Nuoksack river and the Sumas dike.

The evacuations in Abbotsford are added to others which took place in various regions of British Columbia, in particular in Merritt, where the city of 7000 inhabitants had to be evacuated when the sanitation system broke down becauseof an "atmospheric river" which caused floods in the southwest and the center of the province.

More than twenty emergency establishments have been set up to help house blocked travelers.

Environment Canada said on Tuesday that 20 precipitation records had been established on Sunday, while an "atmospheric river" crossed southern British Columbia.

The east of the Fraser Valley was one of the hardest affected regions: the meteorological agency indicates that Hope, Abbotsford and Agassiz all received at least 100 mm of rain on November 14.

Hope, with 174 mm of rain, recorded the highest record of the day, while the 127.3 mm fallen in Agassiz broke a record set in 1896.

Environment Canada indicates that between 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. Monday evening, 24 communities across the province had received more than 100 mm of rain.Agassiz, Chilliwack, the summit of Coquihalla and Squamish received more than 200 mm and Hope 252 mm.

Rescue teams are now concentrated on two roads in British Columbia where vehicles may have been swept away by muds during torrential rains.

Witnesses reported having seen vehicles struck by mud west of Vancouver on Route 7, near Agassiz on Sunday.

On Monday, drivers immobilized by a shift on Route 99 between Lillooet and Pemberton also reported that vehicles had been swallowed up when a second shift occurred about 40 km south of Lillooet.