When boulders poured down on Highway 99 last week, they sent a ripple effect throughout the Sea to Sky Corridor. People found ways to keep give birth, plow through plummets in business and shake off near-death experiences. For Squamish couple Chris and Julia Wayatt, the rockslide gave a flashy finish to an already drawn-out pregnancy.Julia was one week overdue to give birth to her second child when the Porteau Cove rock face fell on Tuesday night (July 29). Given a timeline of about five days to reopen the highway, the couple knew they would probably not have the luxury of a driving to Vancouver to give birth at St. Paul's Hospital as planned.In what would turn out to be a seven-hour journey that included a bit of necessities shopping, the Wayatts set out on a water taxi from Squamish to Horseshoe Bay on Thursday (July 31). Once they made it to the port, Chris and his very pregnant wife waited for a bus to pick them up and take them to a friend's house."That was a long trip through to the city," he said. "We were pretty tired."The long journey turned out to be worthwhile.Hours after reaching their friend's home, Julia got a strong signal from their baby."She started to get contractions around 10 p.m., around midnight she's like kicking out of bed and saying, 'Let's go to the hospital!" he recalled.At 8:30 a.m. Friday morning, Theo Wayatt was born at a hearty weight of eight pounds and five ounces.He quickly garnered some celebrity, attracting Vancouver TV crews and earning the nickname Rocky - a tag Chris hopes doesn't last."People are trying to make it stick but it's not going to," he laughed.On Sunday, the highway had reopened, but the couple had no vehicle in Vancouver. After missing their planned helicopter departure time, Helijet squeezed them into separate flights at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., taking extra care of Julia, who'd already fainted that day."She wasn't really ready to leave. She was a little bit weak," he said.Chris said he was very grateful for all the people and businesses that made his wife's experience more comfortable.While the couple can consider themselves lucky, few people could feel more fortunate than Whistler local Luis Araujo, who was on the Perimeter bus that narrowly escaped being crushed by rock as it sped through the rockslide.At approximately 11:18 p.m., Araujo's shuttle bus from the Vancouver airport reached the section of Highway 99, just north of Porteau Cove on Tuesday night. As the only passenger on the bus, he and driver Peter Skeels had been chatting away when the conversation turned from global warming to living one's life with intent."[We talked] about how people could die at any moment," Araujo recalled, "from cancer, or a crash. Then Peter says, 'I'll probably just fall asleep and dieAs he says this [the bus starts shaking and] the whole mountain falls on us."The rumbling of the rocks deafened the sound of glass shattering, as rocks smashed into the windows on Araujo's side of the bus, breaking all except the one beside Araujo.There were rocks on the road but Skeels deftly maneuvered around them. Both escaped uninjured."I don't know how to explain it, but I felt that we were being protected as we went through the slide," Araujo said.The slide was bad news for many businesses and tourist destinations in the corridor.B.C. Mining Museum director Kirstin Clausen said the closed highway meant 500 less visitors than normal over the four-day period with an economic loss of about $10,000."We're hoping that there's no residual impact, like tourists looking at the highway and saying, 'Oh it's just not worth the risk of going out there.'" Businesses in Pemberton also felt a strong blow from the rockslide. Golf courses, adventure ranches and bed and breakfasts reported a dramatic drop in business during what is normally one of their busiest weekends of the year. But gas stations did experience some positive windfall. The road closure brought an increase in vehicles coming through the back way in desperate need of fuel. One station, the Pioneer Junction Shell served so many customers, it was out of gas for two days.Files from Megan Grittani-Livingston and Brigitte Mah.
