The City of Merritt has announced the final phases of its Return Home Plan. On Thursday, the city said recent hard work reinforcing and rebuilding dikes to withstand rising river levels had been successful, and that no further flooding had occurred. The city says residents can now expect to return home on Sunday, if water sampling returns back needed results. The city was evacuated on November 15th due to sudden flooding from the Coldwater River, with surging waters also damaging the community's water treatment facility.

B-C's public safety minister says the worst of the storms that brought historic flooding and landslides may be over, but a long rebuild lies ahead. Mike Farnworth says the work will involve repairing vital transportation routes while also restoring damaged farms and helping thousands of people return to their homes. He says more than 14-thousand people have been evacuated since the first storm hit in mid-November. Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Lana Popham says hundreds of thousands of livestock animals have perished in the flooding.

B.C. is reporting 368 new cases of COVID-19, including one new epi-linked case, for a total of 219,180 cases in the province.There are currently 3,020 active cases of COVID-19 in the province and 213,694 people who tested positive have recovered. Of the active cases, 284 individuals are in hospital and 97 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.In the past 24 hours, five new deaths have been reported, for an overall total of 2,345.The new deaths include:Fraser Health: threeNorthern Health: twoFrom Nov. 24-30, people not fully vaccinated accounted fo

BC's public safety minister says the province is through the worst of the storms that brought historic flooding and damage to southern parts of the province. But Mike Farnworth says officials and residents are only beginning to start the long-term cleanup. He says both the provincial and federal governments are committed to help affected residents. Environment Canada lifted all weather alerts for BC as storm conditions eased and floodwater receded, allowing for the reopening of Highway 1 between Abbotsford and Hope. Highway 5, a main connector between BC's Interior and the Lower Mainland, was

Agriculture Minister Lana Popham says 628,000 poultry, about 12,000 hogs and 420 dairy cattle died in the widespread flooding last month. In an update today, Popham says 110 beehives were also been submerged and recovery efforts to clean out barns continues to be ``extremely heartbreaking.'' More than 800 farms remain under evacuation orders and official believe the number of livestock killed in the floods will likely rise as residents and operators return. Popham says she's working with the BC Agriculture Council to ensure farmers are supported and has also met with her federal counterpart t

An appeal to the public by Metro Vancouver Transit Police has led to the quick arrest of a suspect who allegedly attacked and sexually assaulted a woman at 29th Avenue SkyTrain Station.On November 27, 2021, shortly after 12:00 a.m., a woman was approached by a man at 29th Avenue SkyTrain Station who blocked her from walking past him multiple times. The suspect allegedly wrapped his arms around the victim, groped her, and forced her to the ground. The victim courageously fought back and pushed the suspect away before he allegedly shoved her down a set of stairs and grabbed her phone. The victim

Highway 99 will remain closed today, Thursday, Dec. 2, between Pemberton and Lillooet, as crews prepare to clear the highway following recent slides.The highway was closed Wednesday evening due to a mudslide. Another larger debris flow occurred overnight in the closure area near Duffey Lake, depositing a significant amount of material across the highway.No drivers were affected by the first slide, after which the highway was pre-emptively closed. The second, larger slide occurred after this.Because of what is in the debris flow and how much there is, cleanup will be challenging. Geotechnical a

A major arson investigation in Tsawwassen has now concluded with a guilty plea.On January 1st, 2020, a commercial building home to two dental practices and a music school located at 5405 12th Ave was destroyed by fire. The property was a total loss with damages valued at over $3,000,000. This deliberate act significantly impacted the businesses, employees, their customers, and Tsawwassen residents."Our investigators were persistent in their collection of evidence over an investigation that spanned several months. They managed to retrieve key information from a digital video recorder fully subm

The City of Vancouver says it will use a downloadable smartphone app to provide safety alerts to local residents, visitors and communities in case of local emergencies. The city says in a statement that Alertable is a municipal-level public alert system that will enable timely distribution of information. It says the app complements the city's existing methods for notifying the public of emergencies, including social media, advisories sent to local news media, updates to the city website and door knocking. On the weekend, the BC government said it is also prepared to use another system, Alert