natural disasters
Updated on 7/23/2023 2:07 PM
A car is stopped in the flood of a flooded street. “We had three months of rain in less than 24 hours. The rain came fast and hard,” local media said, quoting the prime minister of the affected Houston province of Novia Scotia. © dpa / Government of Nova Scotia
While raging wildfires still rage across much of Canada, unusually heavy rains have already triggered flooding in the southeast of the country.
Four people, including two children, were missing on Saturday (local time), Canadian media reported, citing police. “We had three months of rain in less than 24 hours. The rain came fast and hard,” local media said, quoting Novia Scotia Prime Minister Tim Houston. “Our climate is changing, it’s evident all around us,” he added. Violent wildfires also raged in the southeastern province of Novia Scotia in May and June.
Heavy rain started on Friday. The two missing children were in a car that was hit by the floods. Three other occupants managed to save themselves. The other missing persons are a young man and a man. Her car was also hit by the water. Therefore, more detailed information was not initially available.
Fire, floods, rain: catastrophic weather in Canada
Houses, bridges and roads were damaged by the floods, local media reported. Meanwhile, around 70,000 people in the region were left without electricity and hundreds were asked to leave their homes. A state of emergency was declared for the entire province of Nova Scotia on Saturday.
At the same time, hundreds of wildfires are still raging across Canada. The country is reeling from the worst wildfire season in its history. Extreme heat and drought prevail in parts of the country. According to authorities, more than 100,000 square kilometers of forest and other landscapes have already burned. The fires also created apocalyptic images: New York, for example, was temporarily engulfed in a dense yellowish veil of smoke moving south. © dpa