The floods caused by persistent downpours in Nova Scotia, Canada, have led to at least four people, including two children, going missing.
In what police described as the heaviest rains in five decades for the Atlantic region, floods have left thousands of homes without electricity.
In some areas, according to reports citing officials, the amount of rainfall observed in 24 hours was equal to what typically occurs over three months.
Due to the hazardous conditions, residents were cautioned against participating in search efforts for the missing individuals.
According to the police report, the two missing children were in a car that was submerged by flood waters, but the three other individuals managed to safely escape from the vehicle.
Alongside the two missing children, a man and a young person were also reported missing when the vehicle they were in got submerged. Thankfully, the two vehicle’s occupants were safely rescued.
The state of emergency in certain areas of Nova Scotia is a direct consequence of roads being eroded away and bridges being weakened.
Read also: Agony As Over 10 Die In Canada Road Accident
‘We have a scary, significant situation,’ said Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, saying that at least seven bridges would have to be replaced or rebuilt.
‘The property damage to homes … is pretty unimaginable,’ he told a news conference.
Based on his assessment, it is likely to take several days for the waters to subside.
It got to a point where more than 80,000 individuals we deprived of electricity due to the outages.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau voiced his serious apprehension regarding the floods and made a commitment that the government would stand by the province during this challenging time.
According to the BBC report, Environment Canada mentioned that the eastern area of the province could expect torrential rain to persist until Sunday.
‘People should not assume that everything is over. This is a very dynamic situation,’ Halifax Mayor Mike Savage told a press conference.
The flooding in northeast Canada is the most recent addition to a string of extreme weather events, including wildfires that emitted smoke clouds spreading southwards into the US.
In the US, there had been widespread flooding this month. Tragically, a two-year-old girl’s body was found near a river in Pennsylvania, and authorities suspect she is one of the missing children carried away by flash floods over the weekend. Her nine-month-old brother remains missing at the time.
While scientists cannot explicitly link extreme rainfall to climate change, the floods coincide with the predicted impacts of a world experiencing warming trends.