C.B.S. residents blame government neglect for recent flooding
Some residents in Conception Bay South say severe flooding on Tuesday could have been avoided had the provincial government acted sooner to install a new culvert.
During heavy rainfall, water raced down a nearby hill and damaged several homes and at least one garage in a C.B.S. neighbourhood.
"It looked like a lake. It looked like rapids in the driveway. You couldn't see pavement. It was all gone," said Cyndie Stapleton, who lives on the Conception Bay South highway.
Her garage was severely damaged by water and her driveway is now filled with eight to 10 centimetres of mud.
"You could build a sand castle in it, I mean it's nothing but mud and it's slippery as can be. I don't know how we're going to clean it up," she said.
Stapleton said flooding has been a problem for more than a year, after the surrounding area was cleared to construct a new subdivision. Before that, she said they hadn't experienced any issues.
Stapleton said there simply isn't enough drainage in the area and the street needs a culvert to deal with the excess water. Although the Department of Transportation promised a culvert would be installed soon, it was not in place in time for the recent downpour.
"I'm very upset. This shouldn't have happened," she said. "I've been trying so hard to get through to them to rectify this and to fix it, and as usual, something had to happen for them to do something."
Stapleton said government officials told her the culvert was ordered, and that they were simply waiting on an available excavator to install it.
Stapleton said she has been trying to reach her MHA and representatives from the Department of Transportation since Tuesday, but no one has been available.
Nearby neighbour Jamie Anthony was on vacation in Terra Nova when he got the call that his basement was flooded.
"It's a fine old mess. It'll cost thousands to fix," he told CBC's On the Go.
"They knew we had a problem with the road out there, and they were supposed to fix it, but it never got fixed."
C.B.S. Deputy Mayor Stephen Tessier has asked town staff to review the cause of the flooding and expects to have more information in the coming days.
