The hill didn\u2019t just collapse. It swallowed them. In seconds, Highway 99 turned into a graveyard of mud, twisted metal, and unanswered prayers.<\/p>\n
Families waited for calls that never came. Rescuers clawed through debris as the rain kept falling, and the clock kept killing hope. Three men found.<\/p>\n
One still lost. A woman gone. A province br\u2026CONTINUE READING IN BELOW<\/p>\n
In the shadow of the mountains south of Lillooet, the search teams finally had to stop.<\/p>\n
Days of digging through unstable mud and shattered vehicles yielded three men\u2019s bodies,<\/p>\n
following the earlier recovery of a woman who never made it home.<\/p>\n
One more man remains missing, his absence<\/p>\n
now a quiet wound in the lives of those who loved him.<\/p>\n
Officials say every viable search option has been exhausted,<\/p>\n
but the emotional aftershocks are only beginning. Families are being notified,<\/p>\n
names are being confirmed, and communities already battered by a year of fires, floods, and loss are<\/p>\n
bracing for yet another funeral, or perhaps the harder fate of never knowing.<\/p>\n
As Highway 99 stays closed and the slide zone lies eerily still,<\/p>\n
British Columbia is left wrestling with a brutal question:<\/p>\n
how many more lives must be buried before we learn how to protect the ones still standing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"