'It's just surreal': B.C. woman shares story of survival after vehicle hit by Hwy. 7 landslide

Vancouver -

Chelsey Hughes is still processing what happened to her and eight other travellers on Highway 7 on Sunday.

“I can’t believe that we walked away from that,” she said. "It’s just surreal. It doesn’t feel like something that has happened to me.”

The Surrey, B.C., resident said she was driving home from visiting a friend in the Okanagan that evening, and recalled her GPS re-routing her onto Highway 7 due to closures. Passing Hope, Hughes said there were no lights.

“It was just pitch black driving through the city,” she said. “The only light was coming from the cars that were driving through.”

Between Hope and Agassiz, the slide hit Hughes' vehicle. Just before the impact, Hughes noticed a tree falling up ahead of her on the mountain.

“I remember the sound of just being pushed through the earth,” she said. “We were right in between the highway and the Fraser River.”

Hughes said her car came to a stop in a swampy area. She heard the voices of others who had also been pushed off the road, and began searching for her phone.

“I put my hand down by my feet and start rummaging around,” she said. “And I realize I’m forearm-to-elbow-deep in water, and my car is filling up with water slowly.”

Hughes ended up climbing out of her broken sunroof, and sat on top of her car for hours in the cold, while she and others kept in phone contact with 911 and first responders.

“It was very scary. When we were sitting on our cars in the swamp, we could hear other landslides coming down and just the roar of the land falling and the crackle of the trees,” she said. “We didn’t know if it was coming back to us.”

Hughes said there were four vehicles in total, and nine people including herself. She said a car with four UBC students was right next to hers.

“Three were not wearing shoes, and none of them were wearing a jacket,” she said. “I was wearing a hoodie and no jacket.”

She managed to call 911 on an old phone she kept just to store music, and the students were making calls, too.

“I said to the woman, I was just hit by a landslide, I was pushed off the highway,” she said. “Every single dispatcher I spoke to was just absolutely incredible.”

She said she also spoke to a member with the Agassiz fire department, who helped connect her on a call with her father.

“So I was actually able to talk to my dad, and say hey, just so you know I was hit by a landslide. I am on top of my car in a swamp,” she said. “I don’t have a jacket and I’m very cold, but someone’s coming.”

Hughes said emergency workers they spoke to by phone also helped them monitor the condition of one of the UBC students, who had asthma and was having some breathing problems.

She said a parent of one of the students was able to send a screenshot of the “find my phone” location tracker to first responders.

Hughes added there was also a couple in a Nissan truck, which had “folded in half." They had a whistle, which they used to help direct crews to the location.

After five and a half hours, Hughes said rescuers were able to help walk them out to safety.

“When we were walking through all the debris, just to see the giant rocks that were in it there,” she said. “I ironically saw an avalanche warning traffic sign in amongst all the debris.”

She said the travellers were all assessed at the Chilliwack hospital. All she had brought with her were her car keys.

“Ultimately, we all ended up getting out with minor injuries,” she said. “Which was just a miracle.”

Hughes is advising others to drive with a seatbelt cutter within reach, along with a jacket, food and water, and proper footwear.

“There are moments, like last night, I was trying to go to bed and...you just hear it, and it just sinks in, it hits you,” she said, and added she focused on keeping a “mind over matter” mentality to help her during the ordeal. “All I could do is breathe through it and try to stay calm.”