Heavy rain, rising water levels force people out of their homes in Sussex area

Wednesday, December 2nd 2020, 8:56 am – 14 families had to be rescued by boat late Tuesday night.

At least 10 homes in the Sussex area have been evacuated because of the flooding caused by heavy rain Tuesday, a government spokesperson says.

The Sussex area and Sussex Corner were the areas hit hardest by the prolonged downpour across the province, said Geoffrey Downey, a spokesperson New Brunswick’s Emergency Measures Organization.

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“It’s just like spring — there’s not much you can do,” he said Wednesday. “Once the water goes up, you just have to wait for it to go down.”

So far, Downey said, people in the Sussex area are the only residents to report damage.

Downey said flooding can happen anytime of year, including early December.

“It just goes to show that people need to be ready for anything, essentially year-round,” he said. “It’s not just flood season anymore.”

‘IT’S GETTING SO CLOSE TO CHRISTMAS’

Scott Hatcher, chief administrative officer with the Town of Sussex, said 14 families in the Sussex area were forced from their homes late Tuesday night.

But he said hundreds of properties in the area were affected by the storm, and many had water in their basements.

Local fire departments were able to retrieve the stranded families with boats and bring them to shelter.

“We’re getting too used to flooding, which is not a good thing,” Hatcher said.

Trout Creek, which passes through the area, reached flood stage Tuesday night. Conditions didn’t improve until about 4 a.m.

“It’s getting so close to Christmas and with all of the extra precautions … with the pandemic, it’s just added a bit of angst in the community,” he said.

“That’s really just piled on when you didn’t need it to be piled on.”

The last time flooding was this bad was in January 2019, when Sussex had both localized flooding and snow on the ground.

“Daylight is going to show a lot of damage,” Hatcher said of the latest flooding.

Canadian Red Cross volunteers arranged emergency lodging for 16 residents from 11 houses in the Sussex area, said Dan Bedell, a spokesperson for the Canadian Red Cross.

Environment Canada issued a rainfall warning for most of the province on Tuesday.

Central and southwestern parts of New Brunswick saw between 40 and 120 millimetres of rain Tuesday into Wednesday morning, and some southwestern regions were expecting up to 180 millimetres.

Tina Simpkin, a CBC meteorologist said heavy rain is still expected in the Acadian Peninsula down through Moncton and into northern Nova Scotia on Wednesday.

POWER OUTAGES ACROSS THE PROVINCE

NB Power said more than 5,000 customers were without power Wednesday morning. More than 3,700 of those customers are in the Kent County area.

That’s after a peak of about 7,000 customers without power Tuesday afternoon.

Marc Belliveau, a spokesperson for NB Power, said trees falling over power lines were the main problem. About 20 crews were working overnight to restore power.

Belliveau said there was also a fire in a switch gear building in Bouctouche, probably because a piece of equipment failed.

No one was hurt, but the damage is being assessed and repairs could take a bit of time.

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