Two Dead, One Missing as Atmospheric-River Flooding Swamps British Columbia's Sea-to-Sky Country

Search crews went back onto swollen water in British Columbia's Squamish Valley on Friday after a boating incident during this week's flooding left two people dead and one still missing, according to police accounts carried by Canadian outlets. The deaths came amid a string of Pacific storms that has flooded the Sea-to-Sky region north of Vancouver, closed roads and forced evacuations in and around Pemberton.

CTV News first reported Friday, citing a provincial legislator, that there had been multiple fatalities in the flood zone, before Squamish RCMP confirmed the toll: two people dead and one unaccounted for. Those are the only confirmed figures so far, and police say everyone else involved has been accounted for.

Police were called to the incident at 1:52 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 12, the Langley Advance Times reported. The scene was in the Squamish Valley, north of Vancouver.

Conditions on Thursday were brutal for rescuers. According to the RCMP account reported by the Langley Advance Times, high water and severe weather made search, rescue and recovery efforts that day extremely difficult and unsafe for emergency responders, and operations had to resume on Friday. The Canadian Press, in a report published by Castanet, said crews were back on the water Friday and the search was continuing.

Police have not released how many people were aboard, the exact location or what caused the incident, the Langley Advance Times reported. Families deserve both answers and privacy, and investigators are right to take the time to get the facts straight before they release them.

Getting to the area is itself a challenge. Squamish Valley Road, which provides vehicle access to the remote area, was closed at the Pilchuck Bailey Bridge because of flooding, according to the Langley Advance Times. Not far away, some residents about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Squamish were sheltering in place because of the flooding, CTV News reported.

The response has drawn on nearly every specialized team in the region. Squamish RCMP said it enlisted Squamish Search and Rescue, RCMP Air Services, the Lower Mainland District Emergency Response Team, the Lower Mainland District Underwater Recovery Team and West Coast Marine Services, and North Shore Rescue was called in to provide mutual aid, the Langley Advance Times reported.

That list says something about the people of British Columbia's coast. When the water rose, crews from neighboring communities came to help. Every one of those responders is working in the same high water that proved deadly on Thursday, and they deserve our gratitude. Mutual aid is the oldest form of disaster relief there is: neighbors who show up for neighbors, often at real risk to themselves.

Farther north, the flooding has hit the Pemberton Valley and the Líl̓wat Nation hard. The Líl̓wat Nation expanded its evacuation order at 2 a.m. Thursday to cover every area that had previously been under an order or an alert, from the Kwetsa7 area along the Lillooet River corridor toward Lillooet Lake, NetNewsLedger reported. The Village of Pemberton issued an evacuation order for properties along Airport Road, from 1674 to 2000, because of flooding and dangerous river levels.

The entire Village of Pemberton and expanded parts of the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District's Electoral Area C remained under evacuation alerts, and the regional district advised residents under alert to shelter in place if they could safely stay where they were. Staying put, when it is safe to do so, keeps families off flooded roads and leaves room for crews to work.

Roads remain a problem. DriveBC listed sections of Highway 99 at Lillooet Lake Road and at Pemberton Meadows Road as closed because of flooding Thursday evening, NetNewsLedger reported.

There was some good news by Friday. River levels across the Pemberton Valley began to fall after two days of heavy rain, and the Pemberton Valley Dyking District said the Lillooet River was dropping, the outlet reported. But the Green River remained unusually high, and officials warned that the danger had not passed.

This week's flooding did not come from one storm. Environment and Climate Change Canada had warned that a series of strong fall storms would bring significant rainfall and strong winds to parts of the B.C. coast, Daily Hive reported. CTV News described the Sea-to-Sky flooding as the product of a parade of drenching storms.

By Thursday, the rain was finally easing. Most rainfall warnings were lifted that day, though two yellow rainfall warnings remained for western and inland Vancouver Island, according to the Canadian Press report carried by Castanet. The same report warned of a new hazard for coastal residents as the rain tapered off: a storm surge that could bring flooding along the shoreline.

That is what makes a run of storms so punishing: each new round of rain falls on ground and rivers still carrying water from the last one. A valley that handled the first storm can be overwhelmed by the third.

South of the border, the picture this week has been far calmer, though not without risk. The Bellingham Herald reported Thursday that the atmospheric river would bring wind, steady rain and coastal flooding to Whatcom County, but not enough rain to cause river flooding. The Nooksack River was barely rising, and meteorologist Jeff Michalski said river flooding was not expected in Whatcom or Skagit counties, according to the paper.

Northwest Washington families know why that forecast matters. The Herald noted that the Nooksack has flooded catastrophically during past atmospheric rivers, in February 2020, November 2021 and December 2025. Three disastrous floods in less than six years leave a long memory, and they explain why Whatcom County families watch the river closely whenever a Pacific storm lines up.

For Americans who travel to British Columbia, the practical advice is simple. Road closures were reported Thursday and Friday in the Squamish Valley and on Highway 99 near Pemberton. Anyone planning a drive north of Vancouver this weekend should check DriveBC before setting out, and anyone along the Whatcom County shoreline should take the coastal flooding risk seriously.

The immediate work is the search in the Squamish Valley, which police said was continuing Friday. Evacuation orders in Líl̓wat territory and along Pemberton's Airport Road remained in place, and the regional district's alerts covered the entire village.

The storm surge warning on the coast means the threat is shifting rather than disappearing. And with two yellow rainfall warnings still posted for parts of Vancouver Island, the region is not yet clear of the weather that caused this week's damage.

For now, the families of the two people who died, and the family still waiting for word on the one who is missing, carry the heaviest burden of this storm. They deserve the prayers of everyone on both sides of the border. So do the rescuers heading back onto that water, and the neighbors in Pemberton and Líl̓wat territory who are sheltering and looking after one another until the rivers go down.