Water covers a section of Westfield Road in Saint John on April 26, 2019. (Brad Perry/CHSJ News)
The Saint John River is slowly falling and the floodwaters are starting to recede, but significant rainfall may delay that for a couple of days.
During the New Brunswick EMO briefing on Friday, Environment Canada meteorologist Ian Hubbard did not have very good news for those affected by floodwaters.
Hubbard said parts of southwestern New Brunswick could receive up to 45 millimetres of rain by midnight Saturday night.
“There’s a history of thunderstorms with this system,” said Hubbard. “As the winds increase, they’re going to be coming from the southeast, and we’re expecting the strongest winds to be gusting to 60 kilometres per hour along the Fundy coast.”
Last year, a similar wind storm at the peak of the flood knocked down sandbag walls and inundated plenty of homes in the greater Saint John and Grand Lake areas.
The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure is currently reporting 84 road closures. A list of the latest road closures is available online: https://t.co/lbuQ8zDQvD pic.twitter.com/SDuQzTbAyr
— NBEMO / OMUNB (@NBEMO_OMUNB) April 26, 2019
The Trans-Canada Highway is still closed between Oromocto and River Glade due to the flooding and it could take a while yet before the section re-opens.
It is one of nearly 90 roads closed across the province as of Friday afternoon.
Ahmed Dassouki with the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure said a lot of people have been using the new app they put in this spring to get up-to-the minute road information.
“On the website alone, we had 45,000 visits, 100,000 visits, and we had 1.9 million page hits on our NB 511 system, so we’re quite pleased to see a lot of people are checking 511 before they travel and we’re really happy about that.
Dassouki says it will be up to highway operators MRDC to decide when it is best to re-open the Trans-Canada Highway.
Drivers are now being forced to take a 90-kilometre detour via Saint John to get between Fredericton and Moncton.
Canadians looking to help people impacted by flooding in #NewBrunswick can donate by calling 1-800-418-1111 and specifying “New Brunswick Floods” appeal or online at https://t.co/PPi5syYk8M. #nbflood #riverwatch pic.twitter.com/JisiyAVBJx
— CanRedCrossATL (@CanRedCrossATL) April 26, 2019
The Canadian Red Cross says it is getting more people coming to its shelters, but a lot of people are not heeding the voluntary evacuation warnings from the EMO.
A total of 940 people from 372 households have registered with the organization as of Friday afternoon.
Spokesperson Bill Lawlor says for some families, this is a bad case of déjà vu after last year’s devastating flood.
“There have been a number of families who have just returned to their primary residence,” Lawlor said. “To have been faced with another significant event in such a short period of time certainly will have a major impact on those particular households.”
Lawlor said they have started a financial campaign for New Brunswickers affected by the 2019 flooding.
