High school students from Japan use umbrellas to shield themselves from the rain while stopping to view the totem poles at Stanley Park, in Vancouver, on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

By The Canadian Press

B.C. expands evacuation area due to flooding, risk of landslides

Mar 19, 2026 | 9:16 AM

VANCOUVER — A regional district on B.C.’s central coast has expanded a local state of emergency and evacuation orders because of flooding and the risk of landslides.

An atmospheric river is currently drenching parts of B.C., and the Central Coast Regional District says the local state of emergency now covers the entire area that includes Ocean Falls.

The district said late Wednesday that it had also placed parts of the community under an evacuation order after an aerial assessment of local slopes.

While nobody resides in the newly declared evacuation zone, the district says the order is a precautionary measure to save lives, as the landslide is hazard is very high.

The district says the assessment found that the atmospheric river with its heavy rain and high winds caused multiple small slope failures.

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It says that the new order builds on an existing one for the eastern section of Martin Valley near Ocean Falls.

Authorities say that order remains in effect, as does the evacuation alert for the western section of Martin Valley.

The atmospheric river soaking the province’s coastal regions has also brought unseasonable warmth, breaking century-old daily temperature records in several Interior communities.

Environment Canada said seven communities reported record high daily temperatures Wednesday.

Those include Kamloops, where the temperature reached 21.8 C, breaking the record set in 1910, as well as in Quesnel and Salmon Arm, where records set in 1901 and 1915 were broken.

Salmon Arm’s high temperature reached 21.7 C, shattering the old mark of 16.7 C.

Rainfall warnings are also in place on western Vancouver Island, the Fraser Valley, Howe Sound, Sea to Sky and parts of the Metro Vancouver regions.

The forecast calls for up to 130 millimetres of rain to fall before Friday, with some places already reporting in excess of 200 millimetres since the atmospheric river event made landfall Sunday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 19, 2026.

The Canadian Press