Crews reopen Highway 97 after Monday's avalanche

B.C.transportation officials have reopened Highway 97 between Mackenzie and Chetwynd after an avalanche closed the only routebetween the Peace River region and the rest of B.C.

On Monday morning, an avalanche buried a 250-metre stretch of the Interior B.C. highway underup to 10 metres of snow and debris.

Meanwhile, RCMP said a couple whom they thoughtmight have been buried in Monday'sslide arelikelydriving through Alberta.

Thecouple, Volker Kroecher, 71,and his wife, Morfydd,72, were travelling from Fort St. John to Vancouver when the slide hit.

Concerned family members contacted police Monday nightafter the retired teachers did not arrive in Prince George as expected.

But witnesses saw Volker and Mo Kroechereating lunch in Chetwynd after the slide came down, and the couple told peoplethey were detouring through Alberta, said the RCMP on Tuesday morning.

Because of the slide, the only passable route between Prince George and the Peace River district involves a detour of up to a daythrough Alberta, and it seems that's the route the couple decided to take.

Two other people, including thedriver of a fuel truck, were safely removed from the slide area on Monday.

Elsewhere, awall of snow blocking the Coquihalla Highway, which connects the Vancouver areato the Southern Interior of B.C., is likely to keep the highway closed until the end of the week, according to Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon,who toured the site Monday.

A third highway, the Nisga'a Highway from Greenville to Gingolx on B.C.'s North Coast, remained closed Tuesday because of avalanche danger.