‘Nova Scotians are resilient’: Premier vows to rebuild province amid catastrophic flooding

Strong flooding has swept away roads, damaged homes and left many Nova Scotians stranded as historic rainfall continues to wreak havoc in the province.

Amid the devestation, Premier Tim Houston pledged to rebuild the province that has been left underwater after just recently experiencing an intense start to the wildfire season.

“We will rebuild, there’s no question Nova Scotians are resilient and strong. We’ve been tested a lot but we will rebuild,” Houston said in an interview with CTV News Channel on Sunday.

Since Friday evening, the province has been hit with non-stop intense rain that reached 200 millimeters in less than 12 hours. The overnight rain impacted roads and power lines leaving as many as 40,000 residents without power.

By Saturday afternoon, the RCMP reported four residents had gone missing amid the flooding in separate incidents where the vehicle they were in was submerged in the water, two children and one youth and adult male.

“The impact (the rain’s) had on bridges and roads and houses, it’s just devastating in so many ways, but right now everyone is just praying for the safe return of those four souls,” he said.

In the last few years, Canada’s East Coast has been hit hard with frequent extreme weather events like Hurricane Fiona in late 2021, followed by wildfires this summer — all of which has placed an immense pressure on first responders, Houston said.

“It’s been pretty nonstop, in fact we’ve had major flooding before in Cape Breton and then we had Hurricane Fiona and then we had the fires, now we have this flooding, we got the pandemic overtop of all that,” he said.

However, there is still a strong sense of community Houston said, as first responders and residents have together over the weekend to help residents find shelter during the flooding and comfort each other.

“You can just imagine the emotions and the kind of fear and terror that people are experiencing as the wires were raised by debris, as they sheltered in place and saw what happened,” he said.

The flooding has peeled back the pavements on roads, damaged 25 bridges and completely destroyed six; leaving many residents stranded as they can’t reach the neighbouring towns.

As residents are warned to find shelter and avoid rivers and streams, a province-wide state of emergency will remain in effect until Aug. 5, according to officials.

Houston said he was pleased with the support from the federal government after a phone call he had with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, assuring him Ottawa is standing by with rescue effort and financial support to aid in the cleanup.