Year in Review: Nova Scotia's deadly flood catastrophe
An entire summer's worth of rain fell in just a couple of hours on Friday, July 21, as an unprecedented deluge swept over southern Nova Scotia. Here's a look back at the devastation left behind.
In a cruel twist of fate, all of the rain that Nova Scotians so desperately needed during the record-setting fire season came too late—and all at once—on a summer’s evening on July 21st.
It was the result of training thunderstorms that hovered over the province, dropping more than 250 millimetres of rain in areas hardest hit in a span of just 24 hours.
“One of the biggest concerns was always what if this happens in a city and it just wasn’t Halifax or HRM, it was a large area. This certainly ranks as one of the highest impact flash floods in Canadian history,” said Weather Network Chief Meteorologist Chris Scott.
WATCH | Why the Nova Scotia floods were so catastrophic:
RELATED: Nova Scotians describe harrowing encounters, damage from historic floods
Four people, including two 6-year-old children, were killed after becoming stranded in vehicles due to rapidly rising water.
The province reported that nineteen bridges needed minor repairs, while 29 bridges needed more extensive repairs as a result of the flooding. Another seven bridges needed to be replaced.
There were nearly 500 sections of damaged paved and gravel roads and 60 road shoulders that had to be quickly repaired by crews to keep traffic flowing.
“We can rebuild roads, bridges, and buildings, but we can’t bring people back, and the legacy of these floods will be the incredibly tragic loss of life," said Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston at a press conference following the flood.
(Header image courtesy of Communications Nova Scotia)
