Torrential rain that has pounded the province since Friday night has paralyzed roads, flooded homes and threatened to burst a levee.
Four people, including two children, were missing on Saturday after flooding caused by torrential rain in eastern Canada’s province of Nova Scotia, police said.
The two children were traveling in a submerged vehicle from which three other occupants escaped, a spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said, adding that they were being searched for.
Two other people are missing in similar circumstances, the spokeswoman added. She did not reveal the exact location of these two incidents to prevent the public from interfering with the search.
dam failure is imminent
Torrential rain that has pounded the province since Friday night — 150mm in places — has shut down roads, flooded homes and threatened to burst a dam.
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 floodgates were opened on Saturday morning to ease the pressure and the situation was “under control”, according to Windsor Mayor Abraham Zebian.
Pictures on TV or on social media showed that roads turned into torrents and many abandoned cars could be seen. Residents in the province have been told to stay home – unless ordered to evacuate – 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.