The port of Vancouver, Canada’s largest, announced on Tuesday that the floods and landslides in the east had cut off all rail access, killing at least one person and leaving two others missing.
Two days of torrential rain in British Columbia’s Pacific province triggered catastrophic flooding and forced the closure of rail routes run by Canada’s two largest rail firms, Canadian Pacific and Canadian National Railway.
Officials reported that the search and rescue personnel were searching through the rubble for evidence of survivors or additional casualties.
Every day, the port of Vancouver handles C$550 million in cargo, ranging from automobile items to basic foodstuffs.
During the busy season for trains hauling grain to the port following the harvest, the floods temporarily halted much of the movement of wheat and canola from Canada, one of the world’s largest grain exporters.
Drought has limited the amount of Canada’s harvests this year, so a few days of train interruption may not cause a large backlog, according to a grain industry source.
Pipelines have also been hindered by floods. As a precaution, Enbridge Inc shut down a section of a natural gas pipeline in British Columbia.
The storms also forced the Trans Mountain pipeline to shut down, which typically transports up to 300,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Alberta to the Pacific Coast.
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