FREDERICTON — Jennifer Moore was helping a neighbour on flood-prone Stannus Street, in Windsor, N.S., last week when she fell face first in waist-deep brown water in her driveway.
It was the third time in three years the catch basin on the street overflowed, after 1.2 metres of water adulterated with sewage poured into Moore's basement on the road that runs through the Annapolis Valley town.
However, psychologists say the distress faced by Moore and her neighbours is part of a worrying growth in mental health issues and trauma linked to the increasing incidents of flooding and other climate disasters occurring across the country. These experiences have been documented in studies over the past decade.
"We have to start rearranging our day so that if does overflow, we can be home. We've cancelled vacations and trips because we can't leave our homes unattended." Theodore Cosco, associate professor at Simon Fraser University's gerontology department, said repeated exposure to extreme weather events could affect people in the immediate, short and long terms.
Amanda Dunfield, who is Moore's neighbour, said that in July 2023, after more than 250 millimetres of rain fell in the area, her family piled smaller pieces of furniture atop larger ones, tied up the drapes and evacuated. Last week, when more than 100 mm fell on Windsor, she once again was in response mode.
The municipality of West Hants has said it's studying how to separate the water systems in the area — to create one pipe for sanitary sewage and another for storm water. However, Mayor Abraham Zebian said in an interview last week, the engineering solution is complex.
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