Four people, including two children, are missing on Saturday after record flooding caused by torrential rain in eastern Canada’s Nova Scotia province, police said.
• Also read: [EN IMAGES] 100 mm of precipitation: flooding in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Joliette
According to a spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the two children were traveling in a vehicle that was submerged and from which three other occupants escaped. A search was conducted to find them.
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Two other people are missing in similar circumstances, the spokeswoman added. Two of the passengers in that vehicle were rescued.
Nova Scotia had already been hit hard at the end of May, but this time by the fierce fires that also devastated the forests of several other Canadian provinces.
Its Prime Minister Tim Houston pointed out at a press conference that the province received about 250 mm of rain in less than 24 hours, which is equivalent to three months of rainfall.
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Mr Houston declared a state of emergency in several areas of the province and urged residents not to get involved in the search for missing people as “conditions remain dangerous”.
He estimated it would take several days for the water to recede.
Torrential rain that has pounded the province since Friday night has paralyzed roads, flooded homes and threatened to burst a levee.
Residents of the Windsor area, about forty miles northwest of the provincial capital Halifax, received an evacuation order in the middle of the night because of the risk of a dam bursting.
But on Saturday morning, the plant’s valves were opened to reduce the pressure. With the situation “under control” according to Windsor Mayor Abraham Zebian, the evacuation order was lifted.
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Images from TV or social networks showed streets or avenues turning into torrents and sometimes real rivers, and many abandoned cars.
In an afternoon update, the Environment Canada Weather Service said heavy rains were still expected in the eastern part of the province, including the Cape Breton region, through the end of the day.
Environment Canada notes that the rain “of a tropical nature had a significant impact on parts of the province” and that rainfall “of 25mm per hour” was reported in some areas hit by torrential downpours.
Residents in the province have been told to stay home as many roads are impassable. Around 70,000 customers of the electricity supplier Nova Scotia Power were without electricity in the early morning, but by the afternoon the number had dropped to 6,000.