East Coast storm likely to cost millions
Flooding hits roads, covered bridge
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Jackie Brake Crocker of flooding near her home in Trout River on the western coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.
For many Newfoundlanders the reaction was the same with scenes of devastation and damage throughout the province.
“A big stretch of Main Street was under water and on the other side of the road, they had water all around their houses,” said Brake Crocker.
Transportation Minister Steve Crocker said Monday the damage was immense and had to be seen to be believed.
Several videos on social media showed gushing torrents of water flowing underneath pavement or cutting roads in half.
Officials in western Newfoundland estimated the damage to homes and infrastructure would be in the millions.
Backhoes were dispatched to several communities to fill in roads that were cut in half. Crews were on site in Little Rapids, where the fourlane Trans-Canada Highway washed out over the weekend.
The minister said the worst area he saw was Frenchman’s Cove on the south coast, but added the Northern Peninsula and Bonne Bay were also hit hard.
Heavy rains and mild temperatures across the Atlantic region saw power lines downed, buildings battered and roads cleaved away, flooded or clogged with ice chunks over the weekend.
In New Brunswick, more than 100 people in Musquash were allowed to return home after being evacuated from their homes Saturday night due to concerns about the water level at the nearby East Branch dam.
Some areas of the province were deluged by more than 100 millimetres of rain since Saturday, causing localized flooding and water levels at the dam to rise to near capacity.
One of New Brunswick’s tourist-friendly and picturesque covered bridges was badly hit, with the province acknowledging it could not save an 87-year-old bridge ravaged over the weekend by ice and flood waters.
“The Bell Bridge is not salvageable. It took a significant amount of water and ice. A lot of the boards were removed with the water,” Transportation Minister Bill Fraser said Monday as he assessed the damage in Hoyt, roughly halfway between Fredericton and Saint John.
New Brunswick reportedly had about 340 covered bridges in the early 1940s, but now has just 59. They remain a major part of tourism marketing for the province — which calls them “kissing bridges” and offers a map of them.
Just last week, a Sussexarea bridge was damaged by a motor vehicle accident.
And last fall, the 104-yearold Hammond River Bridge had to be removed due to extensive wood rot. Attempts to repair it ended when a large excavator loaded with lumber crashed through the bridge deck. It is being replaced with a new modular bridge.
Hoyt resident Debbie McCann said it was devastating news. “It is quite meaningful to me personally, because as kids growing up we would spend entire summers hanging out at that bridge.”
In Trout River, Brake Crocker said the rains were so heavy that some streets were completely submerged and homes damaged by flooding, leading to a state of emergency being declared.
She said the school had so much water around it that it “was like it was on an island.”
The community of about 600 people was without power for about 26 hours, and roughly 20 people were evacuated from other side of river amid fears they would be cut off if their bridge got washed out. But, she said the water came up a couple of inches from the bottom of the bridge before it began to recede.
Corner Brook Mayor Jim Parsons said a state of emergency has been lifted there, but warned residents need to be careful on roadways that may be unstable.