ROCKY HARBOUR — Rocky Harbour town officials say changes will have to be made in to the culvert systems after heavy flooding caused them to overflow Monday and Tuesday.
Several basements were flooded and roads damaged from floodwaters caused by heavy rains related to tropical storm Leslie.
The flooding that started on Monday morning saw several homes on one street flooded and new pavement was severely damaged at another location. Several gravel road shoulders will need to be repaired in the next week.
“We went out to visit Westview Road at 8 a.m. and when they went back at 9:30 a.m. (the flooding was getting so bad) that we had to yank up those culverts,” said town manager Debbie Reid. “It caused some more flooding problems on Main Street when they were taken up, where the water almost came level with the road.”
Mayor Walter Nicolle said he is relieved that the worst is over, but added a lack of maintenance from the Department of Transportation on the ditches and culverts is to blame for the damage that happened.
“All the ditches are full of debris and grass so the water couldn’t flow properly,” he said. “They were here last summer doing some ditching, but didn’t clean out the culverts and that caused a bit of aggravation.”
But Nicolle said it could have been a lot worse and the cleanup was started late Tuesday afternoon.
“We didn’t get the rain that was called for,” he said. “For normal conditions the culverts we had are fine, but for that kind of rain those culverts couldn’t handle it.”
