By Tina Comeau
(with photos from Carla Allen and Tina Comeau)
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com
A blue sky and the sun broke through the clouds in Yarmouth County prior to noon on Monday but the county and emergency officials are still dealing with the problems associated with seeing more than 200 millimetres of rain fall in just over three days.
(NOTE: You can view a video by clicking on the video tab at the top of this page.)
In Quinan, an area prone to flooding during heavy rains, there was a voluntary evacuation of residents underway on Monday.
As of shortly after 4 p.m. on Monday, the Municipality of Argyle’s Emergency Measures Organization (EMO) office said anyone living in Quinan who wanted to be evacuated from their homes had been so.
“I can confirm at this point that anyone looking to come out has come out,” said Argyle CAO Alain Muise, although he said some people did choose to stay.
“We go with an evacuation notice and if they refuse they have to sign off because services might not be able to get to them,” he explained. “So if they’re healthy and have a lot of food and water and feel okay and they don’t want to leave their home we can’t force them out.”
A local state of emergency was signed for the Quinan area to allow the voluntary evacuation to take place. Many agencies were assisting with the evacuation, including EMO, the RCMP, ground search and rescue, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans – which supplied boats to transport evacuees – and fire departments from Eel Brook, Wedgeport and East and West Pubnico.
At the time the evacuation was unfolding the Quinan Causeway Bridge had not collapsed, but with the amount of water coming through it was deemed impassable. It will have to be inspected to determine if any damage has been done to it.
“The flood waters have also affected the Eli Doucette road,” said Muise. “That is a road that commonly floods. If ever there is a flood in Quinan, that’s one of the first roads that gets flooded.”
Because the road and the bridge are impassable, people were being transported by boat away from the flooded areas. Muise said they were only moving people out of the location away from the flooding, they were not moving people back in who wanted to be at their homes while the flooding was happening. Volunteers had gone to all of the residences on the north east side of Quinan to inform them of the order to evacuate.
Although there have been floods in Quinan before, each situation is different and Muise said with the amount of rain that fell in Yarmouth County over these past few days it was impossible to predict how long people would be out of their homes.
“It could be 24 hours, it could be longer,” he said. “We just have not seen this amount of rain ever before.”
People evacuated from their homes ranged from families with children to elderly couples. There was also someone evacuated whom Muise described as having a unique medical need. Emergency health officials were on standby if needed during that evacuation.
People are mostly staying with friends or family while they are displaced, although a comfort zone has been set up in the village.
Aside from Quinan, there was also concern for residents of the Raynardton area, given the torrent of water heading downstream past the hydro dam. On Monday the road through Raynardton has been closed to all but local traffic. A wooden bridge in Raynardton is affected by the high water level.
There was talk Monday of evacuating more residents.
The Red Cross has set up comfort centres at Club des Audacieux in Quinan and at Lake Vaughn Fire Department in Tusket, Yarmouth Co. As many as 120 families have been evacuated from their homes because of flooding and local officials are prepared to evacuate more people as required.
- Read more special articles :
- - Tusket bridge is gone
- - PHOTOS AND VIDEO: Tusket bridge is no more
- - Quinan residents reflect on flood
- - Over 200 mm of rain . . . and counting
Nova Scotia Power, Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal and local emergency management officials are continuing to closely monitor the Lake Vaughn Dam, Carleton Dam and Gardner Mills Dam as water levels continue to rise.
Environment Canada's latest weather forecast indicates that the rain has, or is near, ending in areas of concern in the province.
Throughout the weekend downstream of Raynard's Lake, Yarmouth EMO and Nova Scotia Power had been closely monitoring water levels at Lake Vaughan, which Nova Scotia Power had lowered in preparation for the severe rains.
An NSP spokesperson said mid-Monday morning that water levels were lowering in Raynard's Lake. But levels were rising at Vaughan as a result of the extreme flow levels coming from upstream to the east.
On Monday, Harold Richardson of the local EMO office said a spillway had failed in the early morning hours. This is a temporary spillway that Nova Scotia Power had built at Raynard’s Lake last week to lower the water levels in preparation for the storm that hit over the weekend.
David Rodenhiser of Nova Scotia Power said the temporary spillway had a fabric lining to control erosion, but the extreme flows over time degraded the fabric and pulled it out of position. The lining pulled completely out of position around 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 8. Nova Scotia Power had people on scene monitoring the situation to report to NS Power and Richardson. Without the lining, erosion has dug the spillway channel deeper and increased the flow.
The situation in Raynardton was one that officials would be keeping a close watch over on Monday and Tuesday.
Although the rain stopped on Monday, getting around Yarmouth County is still tricky, with road closures still in affect and bridges closed in parts of the county over concern that they may be washed out. That’s already happened in parts of the county, like in Deerfield on the Saunders Road, where a bridge was washed out early Sunday afternoon. A rush of water continued to flow over the collapsed bridge on Monday.
A section of the Session Hill Road in Dayton was also closed Monday morning to prevent motorists from driving over the bridge, located near the Austrian Inn restaurant. There was concern over the high water level at that bridge.
The Tri-County Regional School Board did send buses out to pick up students Monday morning. At the time the board said it was doing its utmost to ensure that buses picked up students on roads that were safe and accessible. With students needing to go home at the end of the day, board staff were in contact with transportation department officials to find out where the problem areas were in terms of road closures.
As it turned out, the school board could not transport all students home by bus.
On Monday afternoon it issued an alert to the public saying the following buses would not be travelling on roads that are closed or where bridges are out of service. Parents in those locations were being asked to pick up their children at school.
The buses affected were:
Bus # 808, Mark Hamm, for students attending Drumlin
Bus # 847,James Colquhoun, for students atending Meadowfields and YCMHS
Bus # 810, Darren Watkins, for students attending Arcadia and Drumlin
Bus # 817, Dave Jacquard, for students attending Arcadia, YCMHS, and Yarmouth Junior High
Bus # 814, Don Brobst, for students attending Carleton and YCMHS In addition, buses would not be travelling on roads covered with six or more inches or water.
The Department of Transportation had listed the following roads on Monday morning, Nov. 8 as being closed or impacted by flooding and washouts.
Tinkham Road (collapsed cross culvert midway through road)
Route 308 (Quinan area by the Eli Doucette Road is impassable)
Saunders Road (bridge washed out between the Mood Road and Haley Drive)
Polly Road (bridge washed out past the Indian Hills Road)
Spinney Road (road is impassable)
Gray Road (road is impassable from the cemetery off of Route 203 to the North Kempt Road)
Minor Road (road is impassable)
Raynardton Road (Raynardton Bridge is closed on the gravel section)
Depot Road (road is impassable)
Crosby Road (Leonard Sabean Road) road is impassable
North Kempt Road (impassable from where the asphalt ends to Nova Nada)
Captain Landers Court (impassable from Church Lane to cul-de-sac)
Hardwood Hills Road (middle section is impassable)
Lake Vaughn Road (Hurlburt Falls Bridge is closed)
Chemin de la Pre (middle section is impassable)
Valley Crescent (impassable from Route 340 to Hamilton Road)
Dayton Road (bridge closed between Trunk#1 and Lakeside Road)
MacCormack Road (bridge closed between Main Shore Road and Edson Foote Road)
Mood Road (end of asphalt on the 103 end towards Ellen wood Park for 1 km is impassable)
Perry Road (the last 150 meters on the end of road is impassable)
The following roads are flooded but passable (these conditions could change at any moment so we are recommending alternative routes if possible)
Crosby Road
Brenton Cross Road
Route 308 (Tusket)
Mood Road
Regent Street
Holly Road
Cemetary Road
Motorists are being urged to continue to use caution. Drivers should slow down and watch for areas that are passable, but may have significant amounts of water on the road.
With the amount of rain that has fallen over the past few days, the Department of Environment is cautioning people to be wary of the quality of their well water.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is also advising the public that the harvesting of bi-valve molluscs for recreational or commercial purposes within the foreshore and waters within 5 kilometres of the counties of Yarmouth, Queens, Shelburne, Digby and Annapolis is closed due to an increase in levels of bacteriological contamination that has an adverse effect on shellfish growing areas.
Bivalve molluscs are shellfish with two shells, and include oysters, clams (soft shell clams, razor clams, surf clams) mussels, scallops and quahogs (bay and ocean).
