Storm surge causes major damage along shoreline
Posted Jan 4, 2010 05:36:29 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The snow in the weekend storm wasn’t the big problem for Nova Scotia residents and businesses located along the shoreline.
On the Halifax waterfront, Salty’s restaurant manager Julie McHugh says the storm surge caused huge waves that damaged the harbourfront eatery.
“It did knock over the fence that’s right along our waterfront on the patio,” she said.
McHugh says water levels rose as high as the boardwalk, something she’s only ever seen during hurricane season.
Residents of Cow Bay were forced to flee their homes as massive waves brought the ocean rushing in.
Betty Baker tells the Herald her house was filled with thigh-deep water on Saturday night before she and her husband made it to higher ground.
Baker says in addition to a soaked home, she also has to contend with saltwater contamination in her well – and a septic tank that’s likely flooded.
Baker says the same thing happened after Hurricane Juan in 2003 and high tides are always a threat. She says she wants the province to put some kind of seawall or other protection in place to protect local residents from future storm surges.
At least 10 other nearby homes or cottages were also damaged by flooding.
