Hampden -
At around 10 o'clock Tuesday morning, Bev Rice said she saw Hampden's main road let go under the strain of the "mountains of water" that roared down the hilly slope toward the bay.
What usually was a trickling brook transformed into a deluge in a matter of moments as water became too much for a clogged culvert and it all came crashing down.
"When the road let go, there were big sheets of pavement ... When it came through, it was just like Niagara Falls there was that much power," said Rice.
Much of the White Bay area experienced heavy rains Monday evening into Tuesday according to Environment Canada.
A shed and a greenhouse owned by Shirley and Wesley Parsons were snatched away when they stood in the wake of the pouring water and were swept out to sea, seemingly intact.
"If them two sheds hadn't been there, I would have lost my house. When the force of water hit the sheds, it took the force away from the house. I'd have lost my home only for that. I've been here now 36 years that's the first time it's ever happened," said Wesley, who had just returned home from major surgery in St. John's about a week ago.
Neighbours came and removed the couple from their ocean-side home, figuring the house was next to go.
"All good neighbours. Lots of good neighbours ... It's safe now unless (the water) backs up tonight. The water is almost to our furnace, but the men got it down. It burst open the basement door with the force of the water," said Shirley.
"We felt bad but then I told him, the house is there and we're here," she said.
Wesley said he think they have lost $15,000 worth of property.
Lindsay Warren, a neighbour who was helping the couple empty their basement of water, said there was about 50 feet of water backed up to the culvert.
"It all bust out. She all went, the pavement went, the light pole bust," said Warren. "The culvert was blocked solid with dirt and she all let go and it broke. Took the two sheds. If the sheds weren't there this house would have been right out there with the sheds.
"There's no power. All the lines are down. No sewage, no nothing here now. All the wires are all down and everything. The main waterline used to go up the road up there, that's all gone out," he said.
Hampden Mayor Jerry Martin said the town's main priority is to get the power and water up and running as soon as possible. Although the road is washed out, the community is not cut off as an alternate route is available.
"The power's gone to all of Hampden," said Martin. "The main issue is to get the power back. Then our next concern is everybody down here has no water. We have to try to tie the water in so that we can get water to those people."
He said a culvert underneath the main road was too small, got clogged with debris, causing the water pressure to increase on the road and surrounding ground.
"There was no overflow," he said. "Once that culvert plugged up with debris and everything else and the time of year it is too with spring run-off and the heavy rains last night along with it, never helped anything. It was a disaster waiting to happen, really. The main thing is the boys done the right thing by getting Wesley out of his house and nobody was hurt."
'Falling into place'
Martin said he was already in contact with government departments and was under the impression that repairs would be in the works as soon as possible. He said he was especially thankful to the local MHA of the Humber Valley, Darryl Kelly, for ensuring action was taken.
"I got to say, the way things have moved is just unbelievably quick ... Everything is just falling into place," he said.
A spokesperson with the Department of Municipal Affairs said the department in conjunction with the Department of Transportation and Works and other government departments are taking action to establish a temporary repair to water service as the situation is assessed and plans for more permanent repairs are made.
"Right now we're just hoping the water lets up a little bit to be able to assess exactly where we need to go from here in order to erect repairs but we're trying to establish temporary repairs to the service at the very least," said a spokesperson from the Department of Municipal Affairs.
