Streets and houses flooded, even displaced by the waves, roads cut off… The torrential rains that have affected Nova Scotia, Canada, since Friday evening July 21 have caused considerable damage. Four people, including two children, were missing on Saturday in this eastern Canadian province, police said.

The two children were traveling in a vehicle that was submerged and from which three other occupants managed to escape, according to a spokesperson for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). A search was underway to find them.

Two other people are missing in similar circumstances, the spokeswoman added. Two of the passengers in this second vehicle were saved. Nova Scotia had already been hit hard at the end of May by violent fires which also ravaged the forests of several other Canadian provinces.

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said at a press briefing that Nova Scotia received in less than 24 hours some 250 mm of rain, the equivalent of three months of precipitation. Mr. Houston declared a state of emergency in several areas of the province and called on residents not to join the search for the missing because “conditions remain dangerous”. He estimated that it would take several days for the water to recede.

Avenues turned into torrents

Images from television or social networks showed roads or avenues transformed into torrents and sometimes into real rivers and many abandoned cars.

The inhabitants of the Windsor region, about sixty kilometers northwest of Halifax, the provincial capital, had received an evacuation order overnight from Friday to Saturday because of the risk of the dam breaking. But valves of the work could be opened on the morning of Saturday to reduce the pressure. With the situation “under control” according to Windsor Mayor Abraham Zebian, the evacuation order was rescinded.

In a mid-afternoon update, Environment Canada’s meteorological services announced that significant rains were still expected until the end of the day in the eastern part of the province, particularly in the Cape Breton region.

Environment Canada notes that the rain “of a tropical nature had a significant impact in parts of the province” and that rainfall “of 25 mm per hour had been reported in some areas affected by torrential rains”.

Residents of the province have been told to stay at home as many roads are impassable. Some 70,000 customers of electricity supplier Nova Scotia Power were without power early Saturday morning, but the number had fallen to 6,000 by the afternoon.