Flooding, power outages in Halifax area as rainfall warning issued in Nova Scotia

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This article was published 21/07/2023 (875 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HALIFAX – Heavy rain is expected throughout the weekend in much of Nova Scotia, with Environment Canada issuing a rainfall warning for the province’s Atlantic coast.

An evacuation order has been issued for the St. Croix river system area, due to a dam overflow and risk of breaching. Authorities say the Windsor Civic Centre is available to help evacuees.

The Halifax Regional Municipality says it has opened two comfort centres for residents dealing with power outages and flooding, with the Beaver Bank Community Centre and East Dartmouth Community Centre remaining open overnight.

Nova Scotia Power says it is dealing with outages in the Halifax and Liverpool areas caused by lightning and that thousands of people across the province were without power as of Friday night. The utility has opened its Emergency Operations Centre and says roughly 70,000 customers had lost power at the peak of the outages.

Environment Canada’s rainfall warning says 50 to 90 millimetres is expected and the rain won’t let up until Saturday evening for southwestern regions and Sunday morning for eastern regions.

Halifax District RCMP are advising motorists to stay home due to bad weather and say there have been multiple reports of local flooding on Hammonds Plains Road, Lucasville Road, Sackville Cross Road, and parts of Sackville Drive and Beaverbank Road.

The closing ceremony for the North American Indigenous Games in Halifax set for Friday was cancelled, though there are a few events remaining on the schedule for Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 21, 2023.