Thursday felt a bit more like spring across the Maritimes, but those who live in flood-prone areas aren’t welcoming the warm weather.
Sussex, N.B. resident Bernard Fitzpatrick has been keeping an eye on water levels in the creek behind his home. He expects he will have to keep checking the creek over the next few weeks.
“This year there’s a lot of snow and people in this subdivision are expecting floods,” he says.
Fitzpatrick has lived by the creek for more than a decade. He says it’s impossible for him to get flood insurance and he would like to see the creek dredged.
But Ben Whalen of the Kennebecasis Watershed Restoration Committee says that’s not a long-term solution.
“When material comes down the stream, it settles out there, so if you dredge, you’re going to have to continually dredge,” says Whalen.
“You’re not going to alleviate the flooding issue by dredging. You’re just going to impact the problem.”
Fitzpatrick says, if dredging isn’t an option, he would like to see another solution.
“Up in Hartland and those places, they’re doing a lot. They’re even moving the houses up there or the government bought the houses off them,” he says.
“But here, no one came here and said to us, ‘we’ll help you out or help you.’ You can’t get insurance, no company will insure you. What do you do? You’re left with it yourself.”
Those who live along the creek in Sussex say they’ve never seen this much snow in April in many years. They anticipate flooding will become a major issue if warm temperatures and rain are in the forecast.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Ashley Dunbar
