Two days ago our little corner of the world experienced a deluge of over 100mm of rain in less than 24 hours. The saturated ground couldn’t hold the runoff. The banks of rivers and streams, denuded of sufficient forests and tree roots to absorb the water, collapsed. The tide was high meaning the rivers could not drain into the Bay of Fundy as it pushed back upstream.
This morning I took a drive to a spot called the Waterford Waterworks. At this time of year, the confluence of two streams/creeks would normally be two trickles joining to make a modestly bigger trickle. Today? A totally different situation!
That volume of water is usually only seen in the spring!
Trout Creek was crashing down the gorge. There is a path leading down to the water’s edge, but today I didn’t dare risk it. The water may have undermined the edge in its rush downstream. So I contented myself with standing on the bridge that crosses over the Creek and taking shots from both sides.
Below this spot, where the creek and the stream join, there are numerous camps and cottages, some of which no doubt had water rushing straight through them. Waterfront property isn’t always a good idea. Six years ago the area experienced similar flooding and they said it was a once in a hundred years occurrence. I suspect the combination of climate change and clear cutting forestry practices contribute to speeding up these weather ‘events’.
The Village of Sussex Corner and the Town of Sussex are downstream from this area. Trout Creek runs parallel to Main Street through both communities before connecting with the Kennebecasis River and moving on to the Bay of Fundy. Residential areas and businesses on both sides of the street were inundated with silt filled flood waters destroying homes and their contents mere weeks before Christmas.
A local drone photographer, Ronnie Davis, took this video the day after the torrential rains fell.
Most people are just beginning to clean up from this mess and now the weather forecast is for an additional 60+mm of rain to fall this week-end.
The year 2020 has been catastrophic around the world. There have been numerous weather ‘events’ related in large part to climate change. There has been a world-wide pandemic that now, in its second wave, is showing no signs of abating. Much of this has been mitigated by we humans and it’s time we paid attention to the ramifications of our actions – on ourselves, our families and friends, and the world at large.
As photogenic as the scenes are, we don’t need any more natural, or man made, disasters – especially this year.
Stay safe everyone.
Images by Ceci 