ROCK SLIDE * Canada - More areas at risk of 'catastrophic' landslides

Experts and local leaders shaken by possibility, while ministry says there's still no concrete plan for Olympics or increased monitoring

Vancouver,BC,CAN -The Globe & Mail, by INGRID PERITZ & ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY -August 6, 2008: -- Rattled by the rock slide that severed the Sea-to-Sky Highway, experts are raising the alarm that other crucial arteries in British Columbia could be vulnerable to potentially catastrophic landslides... The province promised last week to ramp up its monitoring in an attempt to prevent other slides like last week's, which was the Sea-to-Sky's biggest in a dozen years. But the Transportation Ministry still doesn't know what that increased monitoring will look like or how much it will cost, and a contingency plan for the 2010 Olympic Games won't see the light of day for at least six months... Frank Baumann, an independent geotechnical engineer, said the section of Highway 99 along Lillooet runs along a shifting hillside that could slide into the Fraser River below... The vulnerable stretch runs along a steep mountain along the side of the Fraser River. Local residents are already "very uneasy" about using the highway, which they must do to reach Kamloops, their main service centre, the mayor said... And Mr. Baumann says he fears that a massive landslide could partly dam the Fraser River... Another area raising worries is a stretch of Hwy. 12 south of Lillooet known as the Big Slide at Texas Creek. Observers say it is a source of concern because it lies on the alternate route that served motorists between Whistler and Vancouver while the Sea-to-Sky Highway was shut... (Photograph by Rowan Palmer/The Sun - A ground-level view of the rock fall blocking the Sea to Sky Highway Wednesday immediately north of Porteau Cove. The slide, which dwarfs a mobile generator, foreground, is seen from the south side)