Latest updates on mudslides and flooding in British Columbia

Photo: The Canadian Press

A vehicle is submerged in flood waters in Abbotsford on Monday.

The latest news on mudslides and flooding in British Columbia:

Rail disruptions

Canada's two largest railways are facing service disruptions following mudslides that have wiped out tracks in British Columbia and caused at least one partial derailment.

Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. spokesman Salem Woodrow says the company is experiencing a track outage north of Hope, B.C., that is affecting rail service in the region.

Montreal-based Canadian National Railway Co. says it is experiencing mudslides and washouts near Yale, B.C. and one partial derailment on a CP-owned track.

The track outages are hampering the movement of goods to and from the country's largest port in Vancouver, just as global supply chains are facing challenges that have led to shortages.

The Vancouver Fraser Port authority says both railroads "have indicated that no rail traffic is currently able to travel from Kamloops to Vancouver."

Mudslides precipitated by heavy rain come less than five months after rail cars were idled by wildfires that delayed both exports and imports.

Malahat delays

Single-lane, alternating traffic is expected to begin moving on the Malahat Highway, the main link on Vancouver Island from Victoria north to Duncan and Nanaimo.

Emcon Services, which handles maintenance for the highway, says in a social media post that a geotechnical assessment is complete.

It was needed to ensure road stability in an area where torrents of water were washing over the road on Monday.

Emcon says vehicles could be getting past the washout by mid-morning.

Burrard Bridge reopens

The City of Vancouver says the Burrard Street Bridge has reopened after it was closed last night due to concern about a huge barge that had grounded nearby.

The barge broke free during a powerful windstorm that followed the torrential rains that lashed southern B-C between Saturday and Monday night.

Winds tossed the barge on the rocks of Sunset Beach and there were concerns it could refloat overnight and drift into the usually busy bridge.

A statement from the city says calmer weather and low winds have cut the risk of the barge drifting away, but the situation is being monitored closely.

Abbotsford evacuations

Residents of 1,100 homes in Abbotsford have been ordered to get out as waterways in the Sumas Prairie region have started to rise quickly.

An evacuation order was issued this morning for the mainly rural properties just north of the U-S border.

Police say they understand many of the affected properties are dairy farms or house other livestock, but they say the situation is changing rapidly and residents must leave now.

Rainfall records

Environment Canada says 20 rainfall records were set Sunday as an atmospheric river rolled across southern British Columbia.

The eastern Fraser Valley was one of the hardest hit areas and the weather office says Hope, Abbotsford and Agassiz all received at least 100 millimetres of rain on Nov. 14.

Hope's record of 174 millimetres was the highest for the day, while the 127.3 millimetres that fell in Agassiz broke a record set in 1896.

Environment Canada says between 11 a.m. Saturday and 11 p.m. Monday, 24 communities across the province received more than 100 millimetres of rain, with Agassiz, Chilliwack, the Coquihalla summit and Squamish topping 200 millimetres and Hope receiving the most of all at 252 millimetres.