Search for victims continues in Johnsons Landing
Posted July 17, 2012 4:14 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
JOHNSONS LANDING (NEWS1130) – Search crews continue to dig for victims of Thursday’s massive landslide which swept through Johnsons Landing near Kaslo and buried several houses. Four people have been reported missing.
The body of a young woman was pulled deep from the rubble near a house yesterday while the remains of a man, believed to be 60-year old Valentine Webber, were discovered on Sunday. The young woman is suspected to be one of Webber’s two missing daughters, 22-year-old Diana or 17-year-old Rachel.
A neighbour, 64-year old Petra Frehse, is also missing. Crews are focusing on the area where the two bodies were discovered as well as the foundation of the cabin where Frehse lived.
Barb McLintock with the BC Coroners Service says the search teams, which include members of Vancouver’s Heavy Urban Search and Rescue team, were encouraged to keep working after the other bodies were found.
“They have [brought] in another piece of heavy excavation equipment because they are finding that these victims are buried quite far down,” she says. “The one we found yesterday was buried somewhere between eight and ten metres deep.”
About 24 people are still working on the slide and a tech expert is guiding them on where to dig.
“He’s been very good at figuring out, ‘Okay, if we know they were in the house and this is where the foundations of the houses were and this is the layout that we know that was there before, where are they likely to be?'” she says. “He’s been right on so far and we just hope he’s going to continue to be right on for us.”
Meanwhile, the province is pledging a review of the fatal slide.
