Rapidly eroding riverbank threatens Keswick family's home
Pictures of a Keswick couple's property, taken just a few years ago, show a vibrant backyard and a nice one-car garage.
Today, the backyard and garage are gone, lost to the Keswick River west of Fredericton. Record floods in recent years have led to rapid erosion of the riverbank behind Bruce Hughes's house.
"In the 2018 and 2019 floods, we were losing 20 feet at a time," he said.
The floods wiped out trees along the riverbank, and now there's nothing left to keep the waters from chewing up the ground and inching closer to the Hughes house with each rainfall.
"We lost at least 10 feet just a couple of weeks ago."
Hughes fears the next storm will see his home of 30 years topple into the river.
He and his wife, Monica, have already started packing up some of their things.
They'd been holding out hope that government would help them save their house, but Hughes said he was told April 19 by his MLA, Richard Ames, that it wasn't a priority.
"I can't afford to do this on my own," said Hughes. "So we put a little money aside hoping they would come to the table, and we could work together and solve it."
He doesn't know how much a house rescue would cost.
If the home goes, Hughes said, the road will be next. Other properties along Route 104 would also be in danger if the erosion continues.
"They're going to have to solve it eventually anyway," Hughes said of the provincial government.
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]In a statement to CBC News, Ames said what's happened to the Hughes land is part of a broader erosion issue that needs to be looked at.
"This might include any programs that can be made available through our federal government, possibly crossing several departments," Ames said in a statement. "I believe the environment departments, federal and provincial, should be looking at erosion that affects not only personal property but taxpayer assets as well — in this case, the road that is located very close to this property.
"Also, potential environmental issues that may come from situations like this with considerations such as oil tanks."
It's embarrassing to have to beg for help. - Bruce Hughes, Keswick property owner
Ames offered no indication the provincial government would do anything to prevent Hughes from losing his home.
Hughes said the decision to pass on helping him save his home is frustrating and keeps him and his wife awake at night every time it rains even a little.
"I've been through a lot of things in my life," said Hughes, who has survived a series of strokes. "And to me, this is the cruellest thing I've experienced.
"It's embarrassing to have to beg for help."
