Record Rain and Snowmelt Triggered a Deadly, Once-in-12,000-Year Slide

On the morning of July 12, 2012, a wall of mud, rock, and shattered trees roared down a mountainside above Johnsons Landing, a tiny community of about 35 people on the shores of Kootenay Lake in southeastern British Columbia. In moments, the slide destroyed five homes, killed four residents, and permanently altered a stretch of Canadian wilderness that hadn't seen an event of this scale since the last ice age.

A Landslide 12,000 Years in the Making

The landslide originated above Gar Creek, a steep drainage channel feeding into Kootenay Lake. An estimated 320,000 cubic meters of soil, rock, and debris broke loose and thundered down the slope, reaching speeds of up to 150 kilometers per hour, roughly 93 mph, before slamming into the small residential bench below.

A geotechnical report commissioned by the Regional District of Central Kootenay later concluded that a slide of this magnitude hadn't occurred in the area since the glaciers retreated more than 12,000 years ago. The debris destroyed five homes, damaged another, and wiped out the community's water supply infrastructure and access road.