Eastern Canadian city flooded amid rains and spring thaw
Pastor Dale Morgan
Eastern Canadian city flooded amid rains and spring thaw*
by Staff Writers
Ottawa (AFP) May 1, 2008
Hundreds of homes were flooded Thursday in eastern Canada, where the
rising waters of the St. John River forced power cuts and the closure of
most provincial government buildings, officials said.
In Fredericton, the capital of New Brunswick province, water levels
reached 8.28 meters (27.1 feet), more than two meters above the flood
stage and nearing a record 8.63 meters set in 1973.
Officials blamed torrential rains and a spring thaw in the north of the
province of the largest snow pack in the region's history.
In Fredericton, water levels climbed more than one meter in the last 24
hours, forcing the closing of the legislature, city hall, courthouse and
schools, as well as some 50 roads.
As a precaution, electricity for 390 homes was also shut off.
"Water levels in most areas continued to rise overnight," said Andy
Morton, deputy director of New Brunswick's Emergency Measures
Organization, but added that fortunately, they were not as high as expected.
He said water levels would continue to rise but should peak Thursday.
Northwest of the province, where the river marks the border between
Canada and the US state of Maine, hundreds of American residents
abandoned their homes in the Fort Kent area under a state of emergency
declared late Tuesday.
"What I saw there yesterday was something that I've never ever seen
before," Maine's governor John Baldacci told Canadian public broadcaster
CBC.
"I saw homes moving down stream off of their foundations, 600 families
and individuals had to be evacuated."
Almost 673 kilometers (418 miles) long, the St. John River's headwaters
originate in northern Maine and it empties into the Bay of Fundy in the
Atlantic Ocean.
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