It has become almost second nature for Alicia Hennessey to gather her belongings and move them to higher ground when there’s rain in the forecast for Nova Scotia. Her street has had three major overflows in the past three years, and this week’s flash flooding was no exception.
For Hennessey, heavy rain means breaking out pumps, hoses and sandbags in hopes of saving her property in Windsor, N.S., something that has become routine.
“When we knew the remnants of the hurricane (were headed this way), that’s when you start to panic,” she told Global News. “You start kicking into gear and moving things up to higher ground.”
Some communities in the Annapolis Valley reported receiving up to 110 mm of rain within an hour, and residents in Windsor, N.S. were once again pumping out their basements.
The area has a combined sewage and water system, which once again couldn’t keep up with the rainfall.
Hennessey was moving anything that can’t be wet out of her backyard, which had a visible water line of nearly four feet on Saturday.
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She also had to move her kids.
“I have three small children, and I was literally piggybacking them out of here that night, and I had friends piggybacking them out,” she said.
“One of them had a small cut on his foot, and I said, ‘You couldn’t go into this water.’”
The murky water became a mix of sewage and stormwater, which she would need to wash off her backyard and home before she can let her kids go out to play.
According to the mayor of the municipality, replacing the infrastructure will cost millions, money the government doesn’t have.
The province received a request from Mayor Abraham Zebian for disaster relief nearly a week before the flash floods hit, specifically for those impacted by combined sewer overflow. One option being considered is buying out the homes entirely.
The mayor’s letter described the residents’ urgent need for support.
“Correspondence has been received from residents expressing the need for immediate supports and options for homeowners in the areas impacted by the noted conditions while the municipality continues to define the long-term infrastructure upgrades needed for the area,” the letter wrote.
“Property buy-outs have been requested by some residents in the areas, and Council wishes to respond to these inquiries.”
The mayor said the region is experiencing more significant flooding than in previous years, and his government has had to find more room in its budget to accommodate the increased rainfall.
“The things before that were little things are not little anymore,” he said in an interview with Global News on Saturday, “111, 112, or 115 (millimeters of rain) in an hour is a lot for any system.”
Last year, flooding in the municipality of West Hants killed four people, including three children, prompting a review that found the municipality faced several challenges in transmitting timely emergency alerts to the public.
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