Amherst flood damage keeps seniors out of Centennial Villa
It may be at least a month before 69 seniors will be able to return to Centennial Villa in Amherst, after torrential rains flooded buildings and ripped up roads on Sunday.
Crews were busy cleaning out the basement floor of Centennial Villa on Tuesday.
The building sustained extensive water damage after more than 120 millimetres of rain fell in the area in less than 24 hours.
Water filled the bottom level after a torrent broke open a steel door. Electrical panels, the furnace and ventilation systems at Centennial all need to be replaced.
Residents had to be moved to their sister complex, Gables Lodge, 200 metres away — in the middle of the night and at the peak of the storm.
"The firemen were there to help, which was greatly appreciated," said Gables Lodge administrator Kathy Maltby.
"It took approximately 45 minutes to vacate everyone from Centennial over to Gables Lodge. Everyone was taken over by wheelchair or rolling walker and we used the emergency capes to keep everybody from getting wet."
In the meantime, residents are staying at other seniors homes in the area but some, like Gables Lodge, are now over their legal limit of occupancy.
"Gables is not able to keep any of the residents because we are over our license, so they have to be dispersed to other facilities," Maltby said.
"Chignecto Manor is taking four residents, South Cumberland Memorial is taking one, North Cumberland Memorial is taking one."
The search for homes is now being extended into Colchester County.
Community cleanup
The seniors aren't the only ones dealing with the storm's aftermath. Farmers are also taking a hit.
At Bacon Farms, a hay field was cut before the rain, and now the machinery can't get to it because of flooding.
Crops that were just planted are now in jeopardy and it will be quite a while before tractors can get any work done.
"We just started cutting silage here just a couple of days ago and woke up yesterday and everything was just flooded," said Doug Bacon.
"The new seeded stuff we had down, the new seeded crops were completely under water."
An Amherst weather station recorded 126 millimetres of rain fall between Sunday afternoon and Monday morning.
