Rain, rain, go away...
Another spring, another flood here in Fredericton. We've been having a lot of rain this week, with more forecasted, and it has combined with a ton of melted snow and ice jams. Result: the Saint John river is spilling over. It looks like this year's flood will be the worst it's been since 1973!
We don't live very close to the river, so our house won't get flooded, but we may have a visitor later this week! Hubby's aunt lives a few streets away from the river, and if the water rises over 8 metres (as predicted), her basement will flood. She has already had her furnace shut off to prevent a fire overnight. This shows how much of the city will be flooded at 8 metres. The flooding elsewhere along the river is worse than in Fredericton though, and a lot of people have been evacuated from their houses already.
I haven't taken any pictures, but if you're interested, check out nagzi's Flood '08 photostream on Flickr, or the CBC slideshow of viewer photos.
Soccer fields are underwater, with only the tops of goalposts visible. Farmland and graveyards are flooding, and boats can't get under the bridges anymore (if anyone would be crazy enough to go boating with the strong current!). I also heard that several of the ramps leading to the bridges have been closed, so traffic is much worse than usual. And one poor woman at Hubby's work has to drive an hour out of her way to get to work, because the most direct route has flooded.
And the irony of it all? The Emergency Measures Office is pretty damn close to the floodplain!
Posted in: New Brunswick on April 29, 2008
