Thousands of Maritimers are still without power after heavy rain and strong winds lashed the region on Monday.
Environment Canada said much of mainland Nova Scotia had received more than 100 millimetres of rain as of Monday evening and some areas in Cape Breton had been inundated with more than 200 millimetres of rain.
The wild weather caused flooding and road washouts in some areas and also downed trees and powerlines.
Erosion caused one Port Morien home to hang over the embankment.
“It was like something out of a movie,” said homeowner Brandon Bates. “I just look out of the window and I seen it filling up with water. By the time I got to the window I seen the land starting to give way.”
Bates and his neighbours started to dig trenches to try and alleviate some of the water flowing onto his property. But the rain was so fierce that they couldn’t keep up.
“Over the period of three hours it just completely busted,” said Bates. “Throughout the day the oil tank fell off and it’s just a disaster.”
Now, Bates is just hoping his property can be saved.
“We lost half the yard, we lost oil, in the backyard, too, you can see our whole yard’s destroyed,” he said.
In Sydney, streets are covered with water as a result of flooded sewer systems unable to keep up with demand. Some people had to abandon their cars in the middle of the road.
Resident William Horne watched his property erode before his eyes.
“It was just like Niagara Falls coming across,” he said. “The sound and the amount of water coming across the street and down overtop, that’s just what it sounded like.”
Like many others, Horne is left with thousands of dollars of damage to his home and property.
“I was worried that I could have lost my boat, and I got five feet of water in my basement with oil,” said Horne. “They told me this morning that there was a few oil tanks from homes that got flooded further up on Cabot Street.”
Up the street, resident Gordie Hynes is working around the clock to keep the water away from his main floor.
“It didn’t hit my main floor, but my basement and everything in it is ruined,” he said.
It was a basement that contained everything from tires to family treasures.
“I know the guy at the end of the end of the street, he’s up to the ceiling on his first floor,” said Hynes.
More than 30,000 Nova Scotia Power customers were without electricity as of 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Nova Scotia Power says it has 95 crews working to restore power, in addition to 27 crews dedicated to removing trees from powerlines.
The utility says more than 122,000 customers have had their power restored since Monday morning, but washed-out roads and flooding are impacting their ability to get to some areas.
Most customers in Cape Breton and eastern Nova Scotia will see power restored by 11 a.m. Thursday, due to flooding and inaccessible roads.
The flooding and power outages prompted a number of school closures across the region, especially in Cape Breton, where all schools were closed Tuesday, including Cape Breton University and the NSCC’s Strait area and Marconi campuses.
The weather is also impacting health services in Cape Breton, where emergency services were available at hospitals in Cape Breton County only on Tuesday.
This means some walk-in services and regularly scheduled patient appointments and procedures, including all elective and same-day surgical cases, in Sydney, North Sydney, Sydney Mines, Glace Bay and New Waterford were cancelled Tuesday.
The Confederation Bridge connecting P.E.I. and New Brunswick was open Tuesday and traffic was running smoothly.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kyle Moore and Ryan MacDonald.
