Edmundston residents dealing with damage in aftermath of storm, flooding

Major road closure because of landslide caused by torrential rains on Thursday

Jacob Moore · CBC · Posted: Jul 03, 2023 7:26 PM ADT | Last Updated: 5 hours ago

Last week, James Gallant had problem driving to work along St-Francois Street in Edmundston to get to his business, Gallant Enterprises, a waste management and garbage collection company. 

But a sudden rainstorm Thursday caused flash flooding that triggered a landslide near that road, and now it's closed.

Gallant can either park his vehicle near the barrier and walk past where the landslide threatens to swallow part of the road, or he can take a 45-minute detour on a partially dirt road. 

"All the main roads around here were all filled with water, and everybody had a hard time to get back home," said Gallant.

After a sudden rainstorm last Thursday night, flash flooding caused a landslide near the road. Now the road is closed. 

City officials have said more than 100 residences were damaged because of the storm.

Gallant said this detour affects a lot of people in the area. It's major roadway leading into the city's core. 

"At least temporarily for now. A lot of people come across here," said Gallant. 

However, despite the inconvenience, Gallant said he'll do a special garbage collection Tuesday for people affected by flooding.

Torrential rain damaged more than 100 houses and forced one couple from their home.

Access to businesses in the area has some people walking around the barriers. A  few people were seen parking their cars on the side of the road and walking across to a pet grooming business, where they retrieved their small dogs and carried them across the closed area.

Danielle Dubé and her husband André Clavette set themselves up so that if they need to get into the city, they have their truck on one side of the road closure and a car on the other.

Danielle Dubé, a resident of Edmundston, took a 45-minute detour when she tried to drive to the city and got lost. She had to stop and ask someone for directions.

Dubé has lived in Edmundston all her life, but when she took that detour she got lost and had to stop at a house to ask for help. 

"Can you direct me in the right direction because I don't want to go back home, I want to go to the city, so they put me on back on, so I was good. It was laughable," she said. 

Water rose fast

When Gallant crossed the road at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, he said there was about a foot and a half of water on the road. Power went out in the area soon after and by 7:30 p.m. officials had closed the road, he said. 

"A lot of water in a short lapse of time. Never saw that. You see that in movies," Gallant said. "Some places it was only six inches, but here we had two feet of water in the span of maybe an hour."

Gallant said that the City of Edmundston did a great job monitoring the situation and keeping people informed of what to do and where to go. But he said it was a pain to find a way home safely. You never know when you or other people might be in danger, he said.

"It was something we're not used to in Edmundston," he said.