Valley Drive-In hit by 3rd bout of flooding in recent months
The Valley Drive-In has seen this movie too many times.
The movie theatre in the Annapolis Valley, N.S., looked more like a lake on Saturday thanks to the heavy rains that hit the province yesterday.
This marked the third time since December that the property in Cambridge was hit by flooding.
To prepare for the anticipated flooding at the four-hectare site, two industrial pumps from the Waterville & District Fire Department were brought in, but it didn't make a difference.
"It was a losing battle all day," said Kirk Longmire, the co-chair of the non-profit group that runs the drive-in. "We never got ahead of it."
It was only when a pump from the Municipality of the County of Kings arrived that the tide turned.
There are a few reasons behind the recent flooding, which include the site's low elevation, as well as frozen storm drains nearby that are causing water to pool.
"There's nowhere for it to go," said Longmire.
He said one of the things that's unusual about the recent floods is that the drive-in theatre normally doesn't experience flooding until the spring.
The water on Saturday was calf-deep, said Longmire.
Videos posted to the Valley Drive-In's Facebook page show what the site has looked like during previous floods.
Longmire said renovations are planned to the main building on the site, which houses a canteen and projection room.
"We can't start renovations now, obviously, until the thing dries out again and you can't really start replacing things until you know that you're not going to have any more floods ... but we've got to figure out how to how to stop the water from coming in in the short term in order to fix the damage inside and then fix the drainage in the long term, so it's a bit of a quagmire," said Longmire.
He said the land the drive-in sits on is owned by the municipality, so it will do the repairs to sort out the drainage problems.
The non-profit group that runs the drive-in is made up of members from the Lions Club, which has run the operation for 20 years.
'Make it prettier than it's ever been'
Asked why he does it despite the headaches, Longmire said there's a simple reason.
"If you come and spend an evening at the drive-in, it kind of gets in your blood."
While Longmire is frustrated by the repeated incidents of flooding, he said the drive-in will come out of this stronger than it's ever been.
"[We're] gonna upgrade it and make it prettier than it's ever been," he said.
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