A slide kicked up a huge dust cloud making for difficult driving conditions on Highway 97 between Penticton and Summerland Wednesday night.
Taylor Cosgrove was in a vehicle with her family heading towards Summerland when the slide from the clay hills must have just taken place around 8 p.m.
She started filming as they drove up to the scene, where several vehicles brake lights are seen going through the dust cloud. As they drove up, there was no visibility and no way of knowing if there was debris on the roadway.
“I haven’t seen anything like this in the 32 years I have lived here. There weren’t any rocks between the slide on the clay cliffs side but it was definitely quite the experience to see it happen right in front of us,” said Cosgrove.
The road didn’t appear to be closed at any time following the slide.
There was some clay dust on the highway Thursday morning.
The entire highway between Penticton to Peachland is in a slide area.
There have not been any major slides in this area since one major rock slide closed Highway 97 north of Summerland for more than a month in 2019.
The slide occurred Jan. 31, 2019 and the highway did not reopen until early March. The closure cut off South Okanagan from North Okanagan.
Ministry of Highways did blasting this winter at that site, causing temporary closures. The scaling was needed after a geotechnical assessment of the area was conducted and found the slide spot needed further stabilization.
READ MORE: Blasting work to close Highway 97 north of Summerland