Residents in one N.S. community and how they cleared a section of flooded road by hand – Halifax

It’s not often someone can say that they made rubber meet the road. But in the case of a group of neighbours in Glen Haven, N.S., they did just that.

When heavy rain dumped between 200 and 250 millimetres along Nova Scotia’s South Shore on Friday, it totalled the Old Halifax road.

The street is a one-road-in, one-road-out drive, which connects hundreds of residents.

Elena Hall was the first to arrive at the scene; there wasn’t much left to drive on. What started as a small shovel and rake operation quickly turned into something where dozens of residents pitched in to help. The roadway was almost completely covered in water, with large rocks bouncing out of the flowing water. It didn’t look far from a river.

Recognizing an immediate need to clear the roadway, soon residents from throughout the neighbourhood pitched in.

“We saw that (the water) was about three feet deep and a complete ravine,” she said on Wednesday.

“We went home, got our rain gear on and went out with shovels and rakes.”

Moving large rocks and shifting pieces of asphalt to create a roadway, the road quickly became something that residents could use to get in and out of their community.

One SUV could be seen trying to pass through the area with water flowing below it. The vehicle is guided by multiple residents. By now, nearby farm-style tractors are there.

The roadway, which was ready by Saturday evening, wouldn’t have been cleared by contractors until Tuesday morning.

“The group kept growing,” Michelle Warren said.

“Making a little make-shift way of getting across ended up building three-quarters of the road.”

Residents of all ages and abilities came to give a hand. Whether it was directing traffic or moving stones, even small children pitched in. It was a community that didn’t have a lot of handy know-how but did have the drive to get the job done.

“If an emergency happened, a house would have burned,” she said. “If someone had a heart attack, they would have died. There was no way an emergency vehicle could pass through.”

The community, just kilometres away from devastating wildfires and caught in the midst of catastrophic flooding, is an example of how Nova Scotians come together in times of need.

By doing so, they may well have made the rubber meet the road.

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