2 people rescued from Humber River following landslide in Corner Brook

Four people in western Newfoundland narrowly escaped disaster in the early hours of Tuesday morning, when a landslide struck their vehicles on Riverside Drive in Corner Brook. 

A truck carrying two people was swept into the Humber River, while another car carrying two people was struck by falling rocks and dirt.

Members of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary were first on scene, and went into the water to rescue the passengers of the truck.

"Everyone is OK," said Todd Flynn, director of protective services for the City of Corner Brook. 

"Obviously the people pushed into the water inside the truck were brought to the hospital for treatment for minor injuries, but they are OK."

The west coast of Newfoundland was hammered by heavy rainfall and melting snow over the long weekend. Corner Brook received 121 mm of rain in a 96-hour period.

There were washouts in other western communities, including Cape St. George on the Port au Port Peninsula, where flooding washed culverts away and destroyed roads in the small community.

The landslide happened just after midnight. Pictures from the area show the hillside across the road from the river gave way, leading to a mess of earth falling down across the road. One car appears to have sustained damage to its front. Flynn said the truck is underwater and out of sight.

It's believed only two vehicles and four people were struck by the landslide, but Flynn said divers from the RCMP will scour the area to ensure there were no other victims.

The slide happened between the Atlantic Concrete and Stan Dawe properties. The road closure is more broad, however, encompassing all of Riverside Road from Route 440 to Humber Road.

Flynn said the closure could last a long time.

"Our big concern right now is what else is going to come down," he said. "So we are bringing in an engineering crew to take a look and see if we can figure out what's going on here. And the thing is the road is going to be closed until we resolve that, and make sure it's safe. So we're working on it, but it will take time to figure this one out."

Another section of Riverside Drive was closed on Friday for a different landslide. Flynn said they felt comfortable opening the road after checking out the scene, and couldn't have predicted that another area a few hundred metres away would cave in days later.

"We had no idea, or even suspected that the hill was compromised in any way," he said. "It's never happened there before, as far as we know."