'It's catastrophic': Residents of Elmsdale and Enfield react to flooding

Residents of Enfield and Elmsdale are in shock over the amount of rain and flooding that hit Nova Scotia over the weekend.

In Enfield, Josh Casas said torrential downpours caused the Shubenacadie River to rise higher than he's ever seen before.

"It's pretty catastrophic," he said.

One of his neighbours lives in a basement apartment. On Friday night, it flooded.

Casas rushed over to help.

"We managed to make it across, the water way here, suitcases above our heads, and carried out her valued possessions, and stuff she really wanted to save." 

Casas said it was surreal to walk into his neighbour's apartment and be up to his knees in water.

He said his neighbour and her children are now somewhere safe.

'The new norm'

Sandra Garden-Cole's childhood home, in another area of Enfield, has a backyard on the Shubenacadie River. 

Garden-Cole's mother, who still lives there, said she hasn't seen the river this high since Hurricane Beth in 1971.

"It's definitely the highest we've seen since we've been here," Garden-Cole said.

She said the recent wildfires and now the flooding across the province show climate change is definitely impacting the weather.

"I look at this and I think this could be, you know, the new norm."

Bruce Richards takes care of the Royal Canadian Legion in Elmsdale. When he arrived at the building on Sunday, he was met with a flooded parking lot and a basement full of water.

Due to seasonal flooding in the area, the Elmsdale Legion has a berm to prevent water from getting in. 

Richards said this berm is on average two metres high, but this time a high amount of water came too fast and it went higher than the berm.

"We didn't build it tall enough, I guess," he said.

Not a quick fix

Wendell Tingley lives near the Legion in Lantz. He was out on his bike Sunday afternoon looking at all the damage to roadways, and the flooded building.

Tingley said he's never seen anything quite like this — and that there isn't going to be a quick fix.

"This is really, really bad and there's going to be a lot of people hurting," he said.

"It's going to take weeks if not months for some of these people."