Despite New Brunswick floodwaters remaining stable over the past 24 hours, there still has been a lot of inconvenience for one community.
The road to Darlings Island, N.B., has been closed since the heavy rain over the weekend. Residents have to park their cars and walk about a kilometre to get to their island.
“It's just ridiculous,” said resident Anne McGuire. “I cannot understand why they can't come up with something.There's smart people around here, like, get it together. Make it safe for the people on Darlings Island."
The road meanders through a low point of land near the flooded Hammond and Kennebecasis rivers.
This isn’t the first time the road has been closed during the flooding season. Each time, residents plead for what they call, ‘A simple fix.’
"Build the road up so it goes straight across,” said resident David Eatmon. “It’s really only got to be two or three feet higher, and you wouldn't have this issue."
Officials say that kind of road construction project would not be very expensive.
"It's a quick fix,” said Conservative MLA Gary Crossman. “We had a petition there a year ago and over 255 people signed to get it fixed. It's all about access to the island during flood season."
The New Brunswick Transportation Department would not say whether there is a plan in the works to address the flooding on Darlings Island.
Residents are wondering why a solution is taking so long.
"What we would like to see is the road fixed so that these low spots are more even and if the water does rise, we will have a chance to get across," said resident Wilfred Last.
At low tide, there's only a few inches of water covering the road to the island. At high tide, the water is more than a foot deep. As long as there's no additional heavy rain, residents believe the road closure will be relatively short lived, and they're hoping their road will be re-opened by the end of the week.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Mike Cameron.
