OTTAWA (Reuters) – Two of the four people missing after massive floods ripped through the Canadian Atlantic province of Nova Scotia over the weekend are most likely dead, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Monday.
RCMP spokesman Sergeant Rob Frizzell told a televised news conference that police had identified the body of a 52-year-old man, who was reported missing after his car became submerged.
They also found human remains in a different place and were working on the assumption that this was another one of the people who had been swept away, but did not yet know for sure, he added.
“It’s a heartbreaking day for our province,” premier Tim Houston told the news conference. The four went missing in the region of Halifax, the province’s largest city.
The storm, which started on Friday, in some places dumped more than 25 cm (10 inches) in just 24 hours – as much as normally falls in three months.
The floods washed away roads, swamped buildings and damaged bridges and a Canadian National Railway track used to access Halifax, Canada’s fourth-largest port.
“Crews have already restored much of the damaged infrastructure, but some repairs will be delayed until the flood waters recede,” company spokesman Scott Brown said via email.
Some of the damage will take weeks to fix, the Halifax municipal authority said in a statement.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
