The daughter of a man missing after taking a walk along the Coquitlam River remains hopeful her dad will be found alive four days after he disappeared.
Jessica Belding said her family is 鈥渄istraught鈥� that 59-year-old Robert Belding is missing after walking his brother鈥檚 dog near the Metro Vancouver river on Sunday.
She said her dad and his brother went to a friend鈥檚 home that borders the river to help with a flooded basement and her dad took the dog for a walk but didn鈥檛 return.
Coquitlam was one of the hardest hit areas as an atmospheric river weather system rolled over southern B.C., bringing more than 250 millimetres of rain between Friday and Sunday.
Belding said she and other family members began searching on Sunday night, and while they found the dog, there鈥檚 been no sign of her father.
鈥淲e鈥檙e pretty distraught,鈥� she said in an interview on her cellphone while she was out searching for her dad on Wednesday.
鈥淚 think some of us are pretty numb because it just doesn鈥檛 seem real. It鈥檚 getting harder by the day.鈥�
She said her dad enjoys the outdoors and she鈥檚 hopeful he has wasn鈥檛 too badly hurt, 鈥渁ndmanaged to stay conscious, and he鈥檚 just somewhere where he can鈥檛 get out, and we haven鈥檛 found him yet.鈥�
Belding said there is overwhelming support from community members asking her how can they help, but people should stay off the water for safety reasons.
鈥淏ut if anyone is in the area and they want to help, just keeping an extra eye, taking that extra time to look while they鈥檙e walking 鈥� just to see if they see any sign of someone somewhere, even in the bushes or on the side of the bank or anything.鈥�
At least three deaths have been linked to the torrential rain over the weekend.
A woman was killed Saturday when her home was swept away in a mudslide on the outskirts of Coquitlam, and two others died on the west coast of Vancouver Island when a road washed out and an overflowing river submerged their vehicles.
The District of North Vancouver said it is triaging its resources after the community was 鈥渄renched鈥� with nearly 350 millimetres of rain over the weekend.
The district said in a statement on its website that its teams will focus on life safety storm-related issues, emergency repairs, debris removal and assessing the full extent of the damage.
鈥淣orth Vancouver is well accustomed to heavy rain and stormy weather. However, no weather event in recent years has brought this much rainfall here,鈥� the statement said.
The district declared a local state of emergency on Sunday and ordered a mandatory evacuation order for six homes in the community of Deep Cove when an inspection found potential failure of private infrastructure that could create a public safety risk.
