Four are missing after severe flooding in Nova Scotia

Four people went missing on Saturday after torrential flooding hit Nova Scotia, Canada, forcing many residents to evacuate their homes, while others had to be rescued by boat, officials said.

The four people were reported missing early Saturday morning in West Hants, about 50 miles northwest of Halifax, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement.

Two were children, aged between 2 and 12, traveling in a vehicle that was submerged, police said. Three other people in the car with them managed to escape, police said.

Separately, a teenager and another man went missing after a vehicle they were in was submerged on a flooded road. Two others traveling with them were rescued, police said.

The searches continue. Law enforcement officials have asked members of the public not to attempt to search for the missing due to the dangerous conditions.

Several rescue teams have been deployed throughout the province.

A group of volunteers, Halifax Search and Rescue, was called on Friday at around 7:30 p.m. and worked until 3:30 a.m., then promptly restarted after just a two-hour break, said Paul Service, a spokesman for the group.

Group members searched for stranded motorists, used boats to help people leave their apartments and rescued about 20 people from Bedford Place Mall in Bedford, north of Halifax, he said.

An evacuation order has been put in place for the area surrounding the 21-mile St. Croix River, which flows through Hants and Halifax counties. The Nova Scotia Office of Emergency Management issued a warning at 3:33 local time which read: “Dam at Risk of Bursting”.

But officials said later Saturday the dam was no longer at risk, This was reported by CBC News.

“Thankfully it’s under control,” West Hants Regional Municipality mayor Abraham Zebian said in an interview with CBC. “They took some water from that dam and now we’ve evacuated most of the area. People are safe, thank God. We have many comfort centers open and we are working on them.”

No injuries have been reported as of Saturday afternoon, said Cpl. Guillaume Tremblay, a spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, added that it had been a long day for officers as they rescued people stranded on roads, bridges and fields.

“It was an extremely busy night for officers who worked tirelessly with zero visibility in the area,” he said.

The Halifax Regional Municipality on Saturday advised its residents to stay off the roads, noting that numerous roads were washed away in flooding and many cars were left abandoned on the highway.

The municipality has estimated that around 150 people have been displaced by the floods.

Flash flooding has occurred across the municipality and periods of heavy rain were expected to continue into Sunday, officials said.

There was a severe storm warning in place, according to the country weather service. Forecasters were forecasting patches of rain until midnight.

By James Brown

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