No flood fix imminent
With rain on the way and warm, snow-melting temperatures predicted, the businessman has no doubt he's about to be hit with yet another flood."If we get the weather they're calling for," the operator of Broadview Power Sports predicts, "it's going to be a doozy."Broad's business sits on low-lying land below the Caledonia Highlands for which Albert County is renowned, on Route 114 near the corner of Golf Club Road and beside a creek that normally would carry snowmelt and heavy rains into the nearby Petitcodiac River.But over the last few rainy seasons, things have gone awry and all that water has inundated and sometimes closed Route 114 and put his business and others under water.Considering the creek bank is already breeched this morning and giant blocks of ice aren't allowing flood gates known as aboiteaus to function as they should, and with warm, rainy weather expected to dominate this area for most of this weekend, a flood is a foregone conclusion in Broad's mind."We've had damaged shelving that we've had to throw out. We've had to shut the shop - lost sales. The bottom plates of the walls are rotting out."Forget flood insurance. Insurance companies won't even consider it.Twice in recent days, snowmobilers using a trail across from Broad's business to reach a local gas station have had to have their machines retrieved and repaired after they sank in more than a metre (three feet) of water that has accumulated under the snow. ATVers who share that trail have long since stopped using it to reach the gas station and instead now carry spare fuel with them. The situation means that gas bar has, like Broad's business, lost a considerable number of visits by customers.Despite the low level of the land, flooding happened only occasionally here until recent years when the frequency jumped remarkably. During most years nowadays, Broad's business and the nearby Patty's Place Restaurant as well as a car wash across the street have flooded twice a year.Last year it only flooded once, in November, but even residents in their 70s say they never saw anything approaching the severity of that flood. The provincial government is studying what to do about it. Minister of Transportation Claude Williams knows that's not the fast solution perennial flood victims like Broad want to hear, but says the answer is not as obvious as it might appear.With equal flooding on both sides of Highway 114, a bigger pipe under the road is clearly no solution, and it would be easy enough to just raise the roadbed, but that would do nothing for the flooded businesses on each side of the road except possibly worsen their situation, Williams points out.The province has hired a consulting firm specializing in hydraulic modelling to come up with options, but to do their work the engineers have to wait for the ice and snow to clear. In the meantime, those consultants and government officials are examining what information is already available on the problem: the layout of the dyke system, the age and functionality of the aboiteaus, tide charts and the lay of the land, for example.
