The Chilcotin River continues to rise upstream of a landslide near Ilnicki Ranch west of Williams Lake that occurred between July 30 and July 31.
A large swath of the vegetation, trees, clay and soils slid into the river blocking it completely.
B.C. Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Bowinn Ma posted a notice late Wednesday saying the slide is located 22 km upstream from the Farwell Canyon Bridge.
"It has resulted in a complete blockage of the river with material piling 30 metres high and 600 metres long. Water has backed up roughly eight kilometres behind the landslide material."
She noted the material blocking the river has the potential to erode and break.
"It's about 20 feet higher this morning," Ken Ilnicki of Ilnicki Ranch told Black Press Media Thursday morning.
"The ministry put a marker down there and it was rising about two feet an hour, but that measurement will probably slow down now as it widens and lengthens."
Ilnicki said ministry officials were at the site at 5 a.m. Thursday morning.
"We are irrigating here," he added.
Ralph Myers of Yunesit'in First Nation, which is further east from the slide, visited the site from the south side Wednesday evening by quad and shared some photographs with Black Press Media.
"It's huge," he said.
Wednesday morning the Tsilhqot'in National Government activated its emergency operations centre (EOC).
By the afternoon, the Cariboo Regional District EOC had issued evacuation orders for parcels along the Chilcotin River.
One covers 7,279 hectares and 34 parcels of the land. The second one issued afterwards is for around 26 parcels which cover around 3,481 hectares.
An emergency alert has been issued for those along the banks of the Chilcotin River from Hanceville to the Fraser River, and the Fraser River from the Chilcotin River to Hope.
According to the province, a sudden release of the water behind the landslide dam may cause a rapid rise in river levels downstream along the Fraser River south to Hope.
More to come
