{"id":349689,"date":"2025-12-16T21:19:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T21:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/349689\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T21:19:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T21:19:08","slug":"mother-of-2-killed-by-falling-tree-in-chilliwack-b-c-park-amid-gale-force-winds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/349689\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother of 2 killed by falling tree in Chilliwack, B.C., park amid gale-force winds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\" alt=\"Text to Speech Icon\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n<p>A Chilliwack, B.C., mother was killed by a falling tree while visiting a local park with her kids Monday afternoon, police say.<\/p>\n<p>Officers were called to Island 22 Regional Park, just north of Chilliwack&#8217;s downtown core, at around 3 p.m. PT, according to Sgt. Alexandra Greenley with the RCMP&#8217;s Upper Fraser Valley Regional Detachment.<\/p>\n<p>Police say the 27-year-old Chilliwack woman was with her two young children at the time. Two people who were nearby called 911 and attempted to help before emergency crews arrived.<\/p>\n<p>The children were not physically injured and are now with family, RCMP said Monday.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"A broken tree trunk lies in a path at a park. \"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765919948_718_default.jpg\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.3333333333333333\" data-cy=\"image-img\"\/> Island 22 Regional Park is closed on Tuesday. It&#8217;s unclear when it will reopen. (Erin Collins\/CBC)<\/p>\n<p>Police say there is no indication the incident was anything other than a tragic and unforeseen event that occurred during severe and unpredictable weather.<\/p>\n<p>A strong weather system moved through southwestern B.C. Monday, bringing powerful wind gusts to the Fraser Valley.<\/p>\n<p>Environment Canada meteorologist Brian Proctor said winds were particularly strong in the region in the afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA really vigorous frontal system passed through the lower Fraser Valley,\u201d Proctor said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Gusts recorded in Chilliwack Monday afternoon reached a speed of 66 km\/h, he said, classified on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/environment-climate-change\/services\/general-marine-weather-information\/understanding-forecasts\/beaufort-wind-scale-table.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Beaufort scale<\/a> as gale-force winds. <\/p>\n<p>He said the strongest gust recorded was in Hope, where winds reached 107 km\/h.<\/p>\n<p>The storm also downed power for thousands of people across the region. <\/p>\n<p>B.C. Hydro says outages peaked Monday, with more than 90,000 customers without service at one point, particularly in Squamish, Duncan and Hope, which were among the hardest hit areas.<\/p>\n<p>Proctor said another frontal system is expected to move through the region later Tuesday, with winds forecast to reach 70 to 80 km\/h in parts of the Fraser Valley and Metro Vancouver.<\/p>\n<p>Darren Clarke, a local resident who frequents Island 22 Regional Park to walk his dogs, said he saw police blocking off access in the afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe saw about 12 officers there and a tree down, and we were asked to leave the park,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Clarke described the mood in the area as sombre.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you hear about a tragedy like this, it&#8217;s always so sad,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd this time of year, so close to Christmas, I just feel for the family. It&#8217;s a tough one.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The park remains closed to the public Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-349689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}