A soggy mess
Cleanup begins as flood waters recede
Many will long remember the flood of 2008. Despite the fact that winter ice ran out of the Upper St. John River valley without any fanfare in mid-April, the river had an unpleasant surprise for valley residents. Heavy rain and warmer temperatures early last week spiked the river to flood levels that, without the aid of ice jams to block the river have not been seen in decades.
By Wednesday at noon, the forecasts by provincial EMO officials were coming true. The water levels in Victoria County were quickly rising, and the Department of Transportation rushed to block the first of numerous low-lying roads that became part of the watershed.
"The water came up so fast!" stated Micheline Desjardins, co-owner of two apartment complexes located on West River Road, south of Grand Falls. Desjardins and her husband Daniel built the two buildings housing four apartments each in 1997 and 1998 respectively and she said this was the first time she and her tenants had been affected by this level of flooding. Other long-time residents of the area told Desjardins they had not seen this magnitude of flooding in 35 years.
"At approximately 2 p.m. last Wednesday, everything was fine. We could see just a little water rising across the road where the Saint John River flows. At 2:45 p.m., the water was pouring over the road and onto our property. Many of our tenants were at work, so I asked our crew of workers to help bring what we could from the basement of the apartments to the main floor above," Desjardins said.
So committed to saving what she could of her tenants' apartments that Desjardins could only save a few items from her own basement. "My furniture is ruined. I needed a screwdriver to disassemble some of the pieces and I just didn't have the time to get everything to dry ground," she stated.
By Thursday Highway 105 was underwater in five different places between Grand Falls and Perth-Andover, and water was bubbling through the sewer system, and backing up through brooks and streams in low-lying areas of Perth-Andover. Muddy river water was seeping into basements, and fire fighters had pumps draining water out of Hotel Dieu Hospital.
Dan Dionne, Perth-Andover's chief administrative officer said, the high water levels caused some concern with local residents, and the village office received numerous calls about water in the basements and concern about the highway bridge.
"We had 15 to 20 properties with water in the basement and one to two had significant problems with sewer backup. One in Perth had oil in their basement…. Anyone with any damage is encouraged to register with the provincial disaster relief number. We are encouraging people to keep receipts and encourage anyone to take photographs of anything they are throwing away," Dionne said.
Dionne said numerous seniors could not recall seeing the St. John River so high without an ice jam to block the water flow.
"Certainly everyone was keeping an eye on the river," he commented.
Firefighters to the rescue
Local firefighters were also kept busy during the initial stages of flooding in the Grand Falls area. On Wednesday, April 30, a contingent of firefighters was put on standby while fire chief Charlie Kavanaugh, along with Town of Grand Falls administrator Peter Michaud and other municipal department managers kept an anxious vigil on the Little River bridge located on Madawaska Road.
"With the fast-rising water and the debris which was floating down the Little River and into the falls, we were worried that the structure might be swept away," stated Kavanaugh.
Engineers with the New Brunswick Department of Transportation were called to the scene and after assuring Town officials that the bridge was sound, the decision was made to keep it open to traffic. However, some motorists, uneasy about travelling over the bridge, chose instead to go to and from home and work by crossing the Trans Canada Highway bridges.
"Early Thursday morning, we were called out to West River Road to rescue a few people who were caught inside their homes above the apartment complex owned by Micheline and Daniel Desjardins," stated Grand Falls fire chief Charlie Kavanaugh.
"We had to go by Argosy Road and come back on West River Road to get to the two homes. We also had to call on the Perth-Andover Fire Department for the use of its Zodiac boat in order to get the people out. Luckily, they were available to help us out. Other than ropes and two lifejackets, our fire department is not equipped with a boat or any other equipment for water rescues."
No sooner had they finished when firefighters were called to the NB Power generating station located below the West River Road.
"We were called through the Town Police 911 line that eight NB Power employees were stranded and needed to get out," Kavanaugh said.
A visit to the site earlier that morning showed that torrents of water heading down the gorge had quickly surrounded the generating station, cutting off the employees from leaving the structure by the only road available. "The water was rising fast. There was no way they could leave the facility by just wading through the water," Kavanaugh said. Again, the rescuers had to call in their Perth-Andover counterparts to the scene with their Zodiac.
"They would take out two people at a time. Everything went well and a short time later, the employees were all safe," he added.
So much water...
While local officials were faced with the need to close some roads due to flooding during the initial stage of the flooding, people gathered at the Malabeam tourist centre to watch as millions of cubic feet of water spilled from the Grand Falls hydroelectric dam every minute.
At the rear of the dam, the intake pipe which takes in water leading to the hydrogeneration station located at the other end of the town, as well as small buildings used by NB Power employees, were totally engulfed by the fast-rising water. Even four structural forms, laying on the same property, to be used in renovation work this summer on the dam's piers, were moved by the force of the water.
Longtime residents told The Victoria Star that they had never seen the falls so high and flooding on such a scale. As a safety measure, police and town officials set up barricades at the entrance to the Lovers' Lane located across the gorge from the Malabeam Centre to stop the curious from walking along the trail to get a closer look at the surreal scene unfolding before them. Barricades were also set up at the entrance to the tourism centre
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