ENFIELD: Shari Buckler has had enough.
Buckler said she has had flood waters once again that have left her home on Carriage Lane under water—and she is pointing fingers at the Municipality of East Hants for not doing anything to remedy the situation.
Buckler spoke with The Laker News about her problem, which reared its ugly head after last weekend’s flood storm that also saw the culverts on either side of her driveway and ditch washed out and gaping holes in her driveway as a result.
But the real problem is the continuous flooding that occurs at her property and four or five other neighbours.
“This is the fifth year that I have had a flood in my house that I’ve had to put through insurance,” said Buckler, who estimates to fix her house after this flood will be close to $10,000. “My neighbour has been after the municipality too.
“It makes me angry seeing the damage from the flooding because we’ve been after them for five years.”
She said the municipality has dug out the ditches on two neighbouring streets, one being White Road, but they won’t come and touch the ones on her street.
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The recent flood has forced one of her sons who was living with her in the basement, to now sleep on the couch upstairs.
“He was living downstairs, but not he’s on the couch upstairs,” she said. “
She said there’s a quick fix to the problem for her and others, one she doesn’t understand why the municipality doesn’t just do.
If they did, they would be done with hearing from her on this issue every time there’s heavy rains.
“I want the municipality to clean that swampy area out, divert the water across the street and fix my culverts the way it should be and make it, so it flows both ways,” said Buckler. ”It’s not. That’s the problem.
“It makes me angry. I shouldn’t have to be doing this.”
With the amount of times she has had floods at her property and home, Buckler is very concerned her insurance company will eventually tell her they can’t give her home insurance.
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For its part, the Municipality of East Hants said they strive to provide the information and resources that help residents understand how to prepare and repair their properties in case of a flood.
Juliann Cashen, spokeswoman for the MEH, provided a few links residents can check out to help guide them.
These links are:
- https://www.canada.ca/en/campaign/flood-ready.html
- https://beta.novascotia.ca/sites/default/files/documents/2-1954/disaster-assistance-residential-property-application-form-en.pdf
Cashen said MEH has a Council Policy on storm damage that may be helpful.
The link to that is:
https://www.easthants.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Storm-Drainage-Policy-Approved-Sept-2020.pdf.
“Essentially, residents are responsible for the drainage on their own properties,” said Cashen.
She said MEH has received many calls regarding flooding basements, however individual details are not captured.
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Cashen was asked why the culverts in the older section, like Carriage Lane look different and sized different then others just up the road from Buckler’s home.
“As infrastructure has been built over the years standards and regulations have changed,” she said. “New developments are required to balance pre and post storm water flows to existing subdivisions surrounding the new developments.
“Much of the storm infrastructure in our older subdivisions is provincial and is in place to protect provincial roads.”
She was asked what MEH will do to rectify these flooding issues to avoid similar issues from future storms.
“The province, municipalities, and the federal governments will be having discussions around climate change and action plans to improve, among other things, storm water management,” said Cashen.
