Bridge over troubled water in tiny Nova Scotia hamlet
Torrential downpour washes away road and bridge in Nova Scotia
On July 11, Dick Killam, a councillor from the Municipality of Kings, stood in disbelief as a torrential downpour swept the road and walking bridge in front of him while he was taking photos of the Halls Harbour in Kings County, N.S. In four hours, the rain fell at a rate of about five inches, or 127 millimetres.
It all overflowed from a ravine into the harbour, eroding the ground beneath the road and taking the walking bridge with it. Thankfully, no one was injured at the location when it crumbled under the pressure of water.
“The walking bridge was put in four years ago, and according to the contractors and the engineering [team], it was geared for 80 years of life,” Killam tells The Weather Network.
Flash floods destroyed a key bridge and walkway on July 11, 2024, in Halls Harbour, Nova Scotia. (Credit: Dick Killam/Submitted)
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Halls Harbour is one of the busiest harbours in Nova Scotia for visitors and tourism, attracting 60,000 to 70,000 people per summer.
It will now take an extra 15-minute detour by car to get from one side of the harbour, where a popular lobster pound restaurant is located, to the other side, where there are bed and breakfasts and Killam runs a store that sells works by local artisans.
Federal and provincial funding had previously been denied for a project aimed at protecting the harbour from climate change.
Halls Harbour is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Kings County. (Credit: Dick Killam/Submitted)
Currently, province staff are stabilizing the site with large armour stones to prevent further deterioration due to continuous water flow.
"We do have our engineering team assessing the hydrology component of the site to see what necessary steps we need to take for our permanent remediation. In the meantime, we do have intentions of installing a pedestrian walkway to facilitate that tourism that's happening in the area," Western Region Public Works District Director Mitchell Conrad tells The Weather Network.
The connection is welcome news for tourism operators facing a second summer in a row with flash flooding in the headlines in Nova Scotia.
