Thousands of people in British Columbia's Okanagan region were scrambling Monday to get home or to their work as a major highway between Kelowna and Penticton remained closed due to dangerous conditions.
Commuters and truckers have been forced to travel hundreds of kilometers out of their way.
This will conttinue to be the case until Thursday at a minimum, according to Arthon Contractors Inc., the company that was working on the road when it noticed the unstable conditions.
The problem centres on Highway 97, approximately seven kilometres north of Summerland. That's where an unstable rock face has been shifting, and there are fears it could come crashing down on the road below.
"It is a very significant amount of rock,'' said B.C. Highways Minister Kevin Falcon.
"We are talking about the potential for 300,000 cubic meters of rock to potentially come down. So we have to be very cautious, and we apologize for the inconvenience to the public,'' he said.
It means it could be days, weeks or even months before drivers will once again be able to use this vital link between Kelowna, and the south Okanagan.
Meanwhile, drivers have been forced to get more acquainted with some less travelled routes. Non-commercial traffic is being directed to a logging road which connects Highway 33, east of Kelowna to Okanagan Falls, south of Penticton.
The best case scenario is that over the next day or so, mother nature finishes the job, and takes the bulk of the slope down on it's own.
"If it did that, we'd be happy,'' said Falcon. "We would get rid of it we'd be done with it and we could pick it up at the bottom and it's the best thing that could happen to us,'' he said.
With reports by CTV British Columbia's Kent Molgat and Lisa Rossington.
