The body of a 52-year old man and other human remains have been discovered by emergency teams searching for four people who went missing in historic flooding after more than 20cm (7.87in) of rain pummeled some regions of Nova Scotia at the weekend.
The man’s body was found near West Hants in Nova Scotia, on the south-eastern coast of Canada, where search and rescue teams were looking for two children, a youth and a man who were in two vehicles which became submerged in flood water.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said that human remains had also been found, adding that the force was working with the Nova Scotia Medical Examiner’s Office to identify them.
“It’s a heartbreaking day for our province,” premier Tim Houston told reporters.
Cpl Guillaume Tremblay of the RCMP said earlier on Monday that other occupants in the two vehicles were able to escape before they were washed away.
The RCMP is leading ongoing efforts to drain farm fields measuring close to 40 hectares (100 acres) in search of the missing people. Over the weekend, the RCMP underwater recovery team found the empty pickup truck in which the two children were believed to have been travelling.
Abraham Zebian is the mayor of West Hants, the close-knit community home to the missing people. “I know the families personally,” he said, choking back emotion.
“Thank God some of them managed to get to shore.”
Zebian said industrial water pumps deployed to the fields have revealed vehicles that were washed off the nearby road.
“There’s a semi-truck that was washed completely off, and you know how big a semi is, and how heavy those things are. It was completely taken away,” he said while surveying the damage in the area. Zebian said a house near the field was carried off its foundation.
The news of the four missing people came as Nova Scotia declared a province-wide state of emergency following flooding not seen since 1971’s Hurricane Beth, according to CBC’s meteorologist, Ryan Snoddon.
The rain began on 21 July, sweeping the southern Atlantic edge of the province before crossing over Halifax and hitting the interior.
“This is a very serious event. This flooding has been fast and furious, and we are taking strong action to ensure Nova Scotians are protected,” said John Lohr, minister responsible for the Emergency Management Office, in a news release over the weekend.
The flooding comes less than two months after record-breaking wildfires ravaged more than 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) of the province, including some of the same areas hit by torrential downpours in this latest bout of extreme weather.
Extreme rainfall has become more common and more intense due to human-caused climate change across most of the world, because warmer air can hold more water vapour.
One resident in the southern tip of the province told the local Annapolis Valley Register newspaper that she knew she had to evacuate her home of 48 years when daylight broke on Saturday.
“The water was coming right up, almost ready to come inside,” Eileen Barker told the newspaper. “We’ve had floods before but never like this.”
“I look at this and I think this could be, you know, the new norm,” another resident told CBC.
On Saturday, the provincial premier, Tim Houston, said at a news conference that, “We have a scary, significant situation here,” adding that the list of damaged infrastructure would only grow.
The scale of the damage became apparent on Sunday as floodwaters began to recede.
Bridges, roads, buildings, homes and a wastewater pumping station 20km (12 miles) from Halifax – the biggest city in the Maritimes – were laid to waste during the storm.
The Halifax Water public utility said on Sunday night that the “wastewater system in this area is no longer operating as designed and is now overflowing directly into the lake”.
West Hants mayor Zebian said there had been an outpouring of help, but was asking residents to stay away from the area being searched to avoid confusing the search dogs.
He cautioned that while some roads may appear to be in decent condition, the water may have washed away underlying support.
“I know people want to help. Here in Hants county, people are quick to jump in front of a bullet for you – that’s how close this community is,” he said. “I love people wanting to help … Just, we need to let the experts do what they do best and keep everybody else safe right now.”
