As people continue to go into the slide area on the Cottonwood Hill on Quesnel-Hixon Road, the Ministry of Transportation is continuing to warn people against it.
Brad Moores is the Operations Manager for the Quesnel area…
“The area is not safe to enter and we are posting no enter signs, do not enter. It’s actively moving, the trees are falling and you can’t predict when the trees are going to come down so we’re really encouraging everybody to stay out of the slide area. It is really not a place to go.”
Moores says it will be a while before the geotechnical engineers feel it is safe enough to go in.
“Ya our geotech engineers are making an assessment but they are highly trained and they will not enter an area that they feel is unsafe.  There are lots of tension cracks, the ground is opening up and if you fall into those areas, it’s going to be difficult for you.”
Moores says it is an ancient slide that has been reactivated.
He says the main portion of the slide is actually beyond their infrastructure.
“EMBC (Emergency Management BC) was contacted on Monday and they put a couple geotech engineers in the air with a hydrologist is my understanding.  The edge of the slide is effecting the road. It’s downstream from our road and it’s actually coming into the Cottonwood River, and it extends quite a ways up the hillside.  So the main slide area is not actually the road, we’re just the outside edge of one side of the slide and the main slide is actually off the road.”
Moores says they don’t have an anticipated opening of the road at this time as they are still trying to figure out the magnitude of the slide area.
He says updates will be provided on the Drive BC website.
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