More than a thousand British Columbians began returning to their homes Saturday after fears a flood could wash away their houses eased.

The evacuation order was imposed Friday for about 1,500 residents near Pemberton, and an evacuation alert covering another 4,000 people was also issued after a morning landslide dammed Meager Creek and partially blocked the Lillooet River.

The slide sparked concerns that a build-up of water behind the dam would eventually come gushing down the slope towards residents and homes.

But by Saturday morning, Mother Nature had taken care of the threat as Meager Creek cut a new channel, easing the build-up.

"Any significant threat of flooding has passed," said Leslie Lloyd, information officer for the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District's emergency operations centre.

She said area residents were "quite fortunate" with how the situation played out.

"Based on the information we were given throughout the day yesterday and last night, based on the assessment that was done at that time, there was obviously the very high possibility that that entire dam that was formed could have just been a sudden break," she said.

RCMP Sgt. Shawn Lemay said officials were relieved no one was hurt.

But he said the area remains highly unstable.

He warned people to stay away from the river bank as a slurry of mud and sediment from the landslide slowly flows down the river, giving the water the consistency of melted chocolate.

The slide involved 40 million cubic metres of debris, making it one of the three largest in Canadian history.

Lemay noted there will likely be ongoing environmental impacts on fish in the river.

Jordan Sturdy, Pemberton's mayor, said residents kept their calm throughout the evacuation process.

"It was very orderly and really no issues were caused or felt," he said.

Lemay said about 70 per cent of residents responded to the evacuation order and left their homes. About 30 per cent chose to stay behind.

Though he cautioned he's not trying to be alarmist, Lemay said "there is the possibility of a second slide."

"There is still some danger involved around the actual slide," he said.

The slide hit about 5:30 Friday morning.

Eight campers who were stranded after the slide had to be taken out of the area by helicopter. Five others chose to stay behind.

The regional district issued the evacuation alert several hours after the slide and later upgraded that to an order for residents closest to the water above.

About 1,500 emergency housing units were set up in Whistler and Squamish, though Lemay said most people opted to stay with friends or family.

John Clague, an earth sciences professor at Simon Fraser University who's done extensive work at Meager Creek, said the slide was likely triggered when warm weather melted part of a glacier.

The area has seen several large slides in recent decades, including one in 1998 when 1.2 million cubic metres of material came down from Mount Meager, according to a report on the provincial government website.

No one was killed or injured in that slide, but the debris dammed a creek and formed an 800-metre wide lake.