'It's really bad': Flooding in Stephenville, Corner Brook shuts down streets
Heavy rains pelting western Newfoundland have elevated water levels and flooded some roads in the region, with workers out in the downpour trying to drain problems as they arise.
Charles and Elizabeth streets in Corner Brook turned into a raging river after a storm sewer system plugged up and overflowed when the rain moved in Tuesday evening.
The rushing water woke up Charles Street resident Karen Pynn, who looked out her front window in the middle of the night to see the torrent sweeping past her house.
"It's really bad. It's the worst I've ever seen it," she said Wednesday morning.
"We've had floods every time it rained, but this is the worst."
The city sandbagged the area and closed off one intersection to traffic while workers dug a ditch to divert the worst of the water. The amount of rain, coming on the heels of several significant snowfalls, caught crews off guard.
"[It's] a lot of rain, a lot more than we anticipated. I guess with the snow melt and rain we've had — I guess we've had up to 30, 40 millilitres of rain, this system just could not handle it," said Rod Follett, the city's superintendent of public works.
Water levels in the Corner Brook Stream ran high Wednesday morning, and Follett said there had been minor flooding elsewhere in the city. He anticipated a short-term solution to be in place for the Charles Street flooding Wednesday afternoon, with more work in the coming weeks and in the spring for a long term fix.
Stephenville flood
On Wednesday morning the Town of Stephenville closed one of its main roads due to flooding — again.
Massachusetts Drive is closed to traffic from the intersections of West Street to Tennessee Drive.
It's the second time this month that the busy road has been closed due to flooding.
Environment Canada has parts of western Newfoundland and the Labrador Straits under a rainfall warning, with water buildup on the Trans-Canada Highway between Stephenville and Corner Brook causing traffic slowdowns. The region from Bay St. George through the Bay of Islands could see up to 55 millimetres of rain before the system moves off.
Extraordinary rain led to flooding and road closures in the Stephenville area on Nov. 1. At the time, the RCMP closed the highway near Noels Pond just outside Stephenville, and inside the town at Massachusetts Drive as well.
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