Woman whose car was struck by landslide in B.C. can barely believe she survived

Story Transcript

Chelsey Hughes hasn't been sleeping well since she was rescued from a landslide in southern B.C. on Sunday.

"Last night, I just couldn't sleep at all. I was replaying that moment in my head," Hughes, a yoga instructor in Surrey, B.C., told As It Happens host Carol Off.

"I can hear the sound of it hitting my car. I can hear the roar of being pushed through. And I think I was screaming, but I don't really remember. I must have been."

British Columbia has declared a state of emergency as it continues to deal with flooding, road closures and landslides after torrential rains battered the province over the weekend and Monday. Scientists told CBC News this kind of extreme rain and flooding is becoming commonplace due to climate change. 

'A wall of mud and trees'

Hughes was driving home to Surrey from a friend's place in the Okanagan on Sunday night. The rain was pounding and a road closure diverted her through Highway 7 between Hope and Agassiz.

That's where she was when she spotted a falling tree out of the corner of her eye.

"I barely had time to really process it, and my car was just hit from the right side with a wall of mud and trees," she said.

The landslide sent her and several other vehicles careening into a cold, wet swamp, about a kilometre off the road. 

"I had stopped and I took a deep breath and I realized I heard people behind me screaming. At first I thought that they were [there to] help, so I was calling out and trying to get their attention, honking my horn," she said.

"Then I heard them trying to call 911, and then I realized that they were in the exact same situation that I was in."

When she reached toward the floor to find her phone, she found herself elbow-deep in cold water.

"So I realized that I'm sitting in water right now and my car is filling up, and I don't know how quickly it was filling up," she said.

Luckily, Hughes had a backup — an old iPhone she kept in her car just for playing music, but which was still capable of dialling 911. The dispatcher told her to get out of the car if it was safe to do so. 

"I looked up and my sunroof had been smashed. There was actually a tree on top of my car. And I grabbed onto the trunk of the tree and I was able to shimmy between my sunroof and the tree, and I got out," she said. "Then I was on top of my car."

From there, she could see three other cars trapped in the same swampy area as hers, and a long stretch of vehicles stopped dead on the highway in the distance. About 275 people were stranded on that stretch of highway overnight Sunday, trapped between two landslides.

The rain was still coming down hard and cold, and Hughes was wearing nothing but a T-shirt, soccer pants, a cotton hoodie and a pair of moccasins. The 911 dispatcher couldn't tell her how long she would have to wait for help. 

"I remember becoming vaguely aware of the time around 8 p.m., and I remember thinking, 'OK, they're going to be here by 10.' And then 10 o'clock rolls around and I'm thinking, 'OK, they're going to be here by midnight.' And then midnight comes, and they're not there yet."

She took long, deep breaths in an effort to keep from convulsing and seizing from the cold. She tried to channel her inner Wim Hof, a Dutch extreme athlete known for his ability to withstand freezing temperatures.

"I'm sitting there trying to overcome my body because I was so cold. I was trying to overcome my environment because I was on top of my car in the middle of this swamp, and there was nothing that I could do about it. And I was trying to overcome time, because I did not know how long I was going to be sitting there," she said.

Finally, at about 12:45 a.m., first responders arrived.

"Oh my god, when we saw the search-and-rescue lights, it was like a breath of fresh air," she said.

There were no trees left standing upon which rescuers could hoist ropes, so she and the others had to wade through the cold muck to get to dry land. Once they were clear of the swamp, the first responders gave them dry clothes, blankets and water.

"They took great care of us," Hughes said. "They were very, very kind."

I keep saying that it doesn't feel like I'm talking about what happened to me, but rather I'm just telling a story about something that has happened to somebody else.- Chelsey Hughes, landslide survivor 

After a night in the hospital, Hughes is now home safe. She survived the ordeal with nothing but bruises and scratches, mostly from when she climbed through her broken sunroof.

"I'm pretty, just, stunned that I walked away with a few minor bumps and bruises," she said. 

"I keep saying that it doesn't feel like I'm talking about what happened to me, but rather I'm just telling a story about something that has happened to somebody else."

But not everyone else in B.C. has been so lucky. Authorities confirmed Tuesday that one woman died in a landslide on Highway 99 near Lillooet. RCMP have received reports of at least two other people who are still missing.

"It's just so tragic to think that these people, they have families, they have people that are looking for them, and that very easily could have been any one of us," Hughes said.

"I am just in disbelief. My heart goes out to everybody who has been impacted by the floods, by the landslides, by the shortages of food."

Written by Sheena Goodyear. Interview produced by Chris Harbord.