The Thanksgiving Day flood that hit the Sydney area has claimed another victim.

A popular community centre that was renovated before the October storm was demolished Wednesday afternoon. The recreation centre once housed a school, but more recently was home to the South End Community Centre.

“It’s the end of an era for our community. We’ve had a lot of great years working here and doing all kinds of really great community events. We tried to meet the needs our community had and to see it all go today is heart breaking,” says Jennifer Smiley, Chair of the South End Community Centre.

The community centre recently underwent a $400,000 renovation to repair the outdated facility, but still fell victim to the flooding caused by a storm surge on Oct. 10, 2016.

“Because of the extensive water damage that was done and the location of the building on the flood plain, I guess wiser heads prevail and advice from the insurance company was that it was beyond remediation,” says CBRM Councillor Ray Paruch.

But not everyone was sad to see the building go. Joe Sampson lives just across the street from the community centre, and says the building became a hazard for everyone in the area after the flood.

“About a week or so ago, part of the roof blew off from one end of the building to the other, which was quite dangerous. A 20 x 20 piece of wood came off the roof and landed across the street in my front yard,” says Sampson.

Sampson also says action needs to be taken to demolish several vacant homes in the area, some attracting rats and mould.

Crews say that the demolition and cleanup will take at least a week before everything is done. As for the community group that occupied the building, they’re still looking for a new place to go.

“As of right now, the community centre itself has officially suspended operations. We’re waiting to find out what we are going to be able to do; either get a new location, renovate an existing building in the CBRM, or just do a completely new build, we’re not quite sure yet,” says Smiley.

Smiley says a time capsule dating back to when the building was a junior high school was recovered prior to the demolition. Although they’re not sure what the capsule contains, they’re hoping it is a way to keep the old building’s memory alive.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kyle Moore.