Search for N.S. youth who went missing during torrential flooding has been temporarily suspended

The search for a youth who went missing in West Hants, N.S., during torrential flooding has been temporarily suspended in order to allow remaining water to drain from the search site, RCMP say.

Supt. Sean Auld, support services officer for the Nova Scotia RCMP, said Monday that despite “an extensive search to date,” the missing person under the age of 18 has not been located.

Members of the search team encountered deep pockets of water in the area adjacent to a flooded hayfield in Brooklyn, N.S. while looking for the missing youth over the weekend, RCMP said.

“Searching these pockets is too dangerous for searchers, due to the depth of the water,” Auld said.

It’s expected the pockets of water will drain naturally over the next few days, RCMP said, and search efforts will resume when the site is drained.

The bodies of 52-year-old Nicholas Anthony Holland, six-year-old Natalie Hazel Harnish and six-year-old Colton Sisco were discovered on July 24 and 25.

Holland and one of the children were found in the primary search site, a flooded hayfield in Brooklyn, and the other child’s remains were found by civilians at a nearby coastal area.

The missing youth was travelling with Holland when the vehicle they were in was pushed off the road into a nearby flooded field, police said.

Between 60 to 70 people, which include first responders and volunteers, have been involved in the search each day, police said.

The search has involved members from many Nova Scotia fire departments, search and rescue teams from West Hants, East Hants, Digby, Annapolis County and Valley, the Department of Natural Resources and Renewables, Nova Scotia Public Safety and Field Communications, RCMP police dog services, and civilian contractors.

The search has relied heavily on industrial, high-flow pumps to divert more than a lake’s worth of water out of the field.

There is also a third search area that runs along the shore from Halls Harbour to Brooklyn and from Maitland to Brooklyn. Search efforts have been focused on the edges of the river systems that flow into the Minas Basin using support of RCMP air services, Mounties said.

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