This is Kaiya Hemmings reporting from
St
And today we're going to learn all about the floods.
Where the rivers gets so high that they cover up the road,
they have to put up a sign like this.
And they also put a sign up like this because
all the dirty sewage water gets mixed up into the river water.
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I wanted to talk to a few people that
their lives got impacted from last year's flood.
Do you think that it's gonna
to flood as bad as like last year and why?
I think it will because it's already really high.
How high did the water flow last year?
About three meters away from my stairs.
Do you have any tips for everyone,
like how to prepare their properties?
They should grab sandbags
and I don't think this year they should be giving them back.
So just be prepared for next year.
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Kaiya: Two days ago, I was here
interviewing Olivia over there.
Remember?
And look what happened?
And all of that was walking space.
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24 hours later the fireplace is already covered.
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Now flooding is a natural thing that happens
throughout Canada in the springtime.
But the last few years the flooding has
been so high in New Brunswick, but why?
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St. John River in New Brunswick is really unique.
This is the Reversing Falls Rapids right behind us.
And it's actually where this entire river system,
the second biggest
watershed on the eastern seaboard of North America,
all drains through this tiny little space.
Normally rivers at their ends like the Amazon or or the Nile
they get wider and wider into big estuaries at the bottom
and estuaries just where the river meets the sea.
But at the Reversing Falls rapids what
we see is a narrowing.
And when that meets the highest tides in the world,
the Bay of Fundy, it's a really unique place that
we see nowhere else in the world.
But it also makes a lot of challenges because
every time we get a flood, every time we get these
unique spring events like we're seeing last year
maybe this year as well,
that river can't drain out.
The tide comes up,
the river backs up into this narrow gorge.
That rush of water is too much too fast.
And that's what goes into people's houses
and businesses and into our communities
and that's a real danger for everybody.
So right now I'm here with our St. John Mayor,
Mayor John Darling.
Kaiya: Why was this years flood so different from
all the other years?
Yeah, well I think, I think
what's different, Kaiya, this year is that
we're here two years in a row.
So, you know, when you look
at it it was 1973 and then it was 2008
and then it was 2018 -
which were record floods -
and I think it really caught us off guard.
And then just one year later we're back
in a very similar situation, about the same water levels.
And I think it's going to,
it means that we're going to have to adapt and we're gonna
to have to make some serious change for the future.
Since our climate is changing
the flooding levels are less predictable
to know if it's going to be higher or lower each year.
And this creates a lot of challenges for both
people and the environment.
Lisa: That is?
Kaiya: A covered car.
A covered car in a driveway.
Kaiya: I'm with Lisa and Lisa is a writer
and she wrote a book about last year's flood.
One of the most interesting things that happened
with a number of volunteers who came out to help.
So I think that's really, really important that
we come together to help.
So while this started out for me as a disaster story
it ended up being a bit of a love story.
Today is the highest levels for flooding this year.
So every day after this
the water's gonna to be starting to go down.
Reporting for
And make sure to stay dry.
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