No major damage reported in Sydney, N.S., area after heavy rain

For a time on Sunday morning, the rain was coming down heavily in the Sydney, N.S., area, and as water pooled quickly on roads and highways, it looked like flooding conditions had the potential to get bad.

But by midday, the rain had stopped.

Though water did collect in some typical problem areas around town, things mostly went back to normal.

The threat of heavy rain throughout the weekend, though, brought back bad memories for Sydney residents who lived through devastating flooding nearly seven years ago.

"It just brought all that back,” said Walter Doue.

Doue is among those who suffered major damage to his home in the Sydney Thanksgiving flood of Oct. 10, 2016.

Roughly 225 mm of rain fell that day in a matter of hours, and when Doue saw the images from flooding on mainland Nova Scotia on the weekend, memories of how his ordeal felt came back quickly.

"What are we going to do now? How are we going to rebuild this? Are we going to stay here? Is this house going to be livable?” Doue recalled. “We had all those thoughts and all those conversations."

While some streets were closed on Sunday because of sitting water, CBRM communications’ Christina Lamey said municipal engineering and Public Works reported no major damage to city infrastructure.

However, she said some homeowners were left cleaning up from all that water and a few houses were even struck by lightning.

"Some flooded basements, some sewer backups,” Lamey said. “Very sporadic though, no one particular area was hit more than others. We feel very fortunate here."

When thinking about the cleanup that lies ahead on the mainland, Lamey said her city knows the feeling from what they had to rebuild seven years ago.

"To think about the amount of damage that's done and how long it takes to recover from these things -- years in some cases -- for people to rebuild and rebuild their homes,” Lamey said.

For Doue, who ended up moving because of the damage done to his home in 2016, he says with three major weather events having hit the province in less than a year -- dating back to Fiona -- it's tough to see the elements change the lives of so many, like they once did for his family.

"The wildfires and just the devastation in that part of Nova Scotia,” Doue said. “So hopefully, it's quick -- quick assistance from the municipality and provincial government and even federal."

So while it may have been a bit of a bullet dodged on Cape Breton Island, there is plenty of sympathy being sent across the Canso Causeway.

For more Nova Scotia news visit our dedicated provincial page.