 A massive landslide destroyed three homes Thursday in Johnsons Landing, B.C., on Thursday, July 12, 2012. Four people are missing. (Handout/Regional District of Central Kootenay)
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The search for the missing victims of last week's Johnsons Landing mudslide became a recovery operation after emergency crews found remains Sunday afternoon, RCMP said.
Emergency crews discovered remains they believe to be 60-year-old Valentine Webber.
Webber’s daughters, Diana, 22, and Rachel, 17, also went missing in the slide that hit Thursday, as well as their neighbour, German Petra Frehse.
Rescue volunteers were pulled off the site with the BC Coroners service taking over.
The search was also delayed Sunday after seven people stranded in homes near the slides were located. Authorities were unable to get to the group.
Last Wednesday, residents started an e-mail chain about a potential dangerous mudslide in the area.
The Ministry of Forest, Lands and Natural Resources confirmed Sunday their local research hydrologist received the e-mail at 8:47 a.m. but didn’t read it until 11:30 a.m., about a half-hour after the slide, because he was working in the area and away from a computer.
Resources were diverted from Johnsons Landing on Sunday afternoon to Fairmont Hot Springs near Cranbrook, B.C., after a separate landslide swept away a pedestrian bridge and a canyon road dividing the resort community.
A Fairmont Vacation Villas employee said the villas were evacuated and officials blocked all roads from the highway to the mountainside. No one had been reported injured.
