Wild weather causes flooding, damage across the Maritimes

CTV Atlantic: Snow closes N.B. schools In northerly areas of New Brunswick, snow closed schools and made road conditions treacherous. CTV's Nick Moore explains.

A low-pressure system brought heavy rain, snow, and strong winds to parts of the Maritimes on Monday.

Environment Canada issued snowfall warnings for Campbellton, Restigouche County, Edmundston, and Madawaska County, with 15 to 20 centimetres of snow expected. Rainfall and wind warnings were issued for parts of Nova Scotia.

Total rainfall amounts could reach up to 60 millimetres in parts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Streets in Antigonish, N.S, were forced to close due to flash flooding.

Over the weekend, high temperatures caused a local river to thaw, then a cold snap created a flash freeze Friday night.

“With all that combined, that equated to the parking lot flooding very quickly, with 10 minutes, and people didn't have time to move their cars,” says Antigonish Mayor Laurie Boucher. “They were surrounded by ice and the flash freeze. It was impossible to get them out.”

Town crews worked through frigid temperatures, pushing ice chunks out of the way hoping to disperse the water. Though the flooding is receding, residents aren’t letting their guard down.

“We're in a low-lying area, so we've had flooding before,” says local resident Len MacDonald. “But the combination of the ice and the heavy rain, and the freeze and thaw cycle from this last couple of weeks has created this mess.”

In Halifax, strong winds blew part of the roof off of the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts, prompting the organization to close for the day.

No one was injured, but it will take some time to fix the roof, as crews won’t be able to make repairs until the wind dies down. The roof was already in the process of being repaired after the last windstorm.

The weather affected shoppers in Halifax, as well. The Superstore on Young Street was closed most of the afternoon after high winds created concerns about the building's roof.

In New Brunswick, roughly 485 customers were off the grid as off 11 a.m., with most outages reported in the Chaleur area. Pooling slush up and down the Trans-Canada Highway resulted in several vehicles leaving the road.

In Fredericton, crews were trying to keep up with the wild fluctuation in temperature – from frigid cold to mild.

“The roads are wet, so when they freeze we have to be prepared to salt and sand those again, so our operations start over again,” says Mike Walker, manager of City of Fredericton Streets and Roads.

In Saint John, a large amount of water has accumulated on city streets and police are urging motorists to slow down.

New Brunswick EMO says there are no areas at the moment presenting any real worry for ice jams or flooding, but point out that things can change quickly.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Nick Moore and Emily Baron Cadloff.