Covering the drought in southwestern Nova Scotia

If you want an example of just how low water levels are in Shelburne County, look at the rivers. Any of them. The driest summer since the 1880s has left the rocks on rivers such as the Roseway, Tigney and Jordan baking in the unrelenting sun.

That is, as we would learn the hard way, until the tide turns.

Earlier this week, I hosted the evening newscast from the Jordan River. Camera operator Eric Woolliscroft spotted the waterway early in the day. It was shocking to see just a trickle of water where usually there would be more of a torrent, but such is life in this part of the province these days.

Wells, springs, streams and rivers are choking as a result of having only received about one-third of the rainfall they normally receive.

The Jordan River was to be our live backdrop to help tell that story.

We spent the day tracking down well digging companies and contractors. They are criss-crossing southwestern Nova Scotia, working long days, in what has been one of their busiest summers.

The relief they bring to people when they pull up with their trucks and excavators is evident. The anxiety homeowners feel, who have struggled for weeks to get water for their everyday needs, quickly drains away faster than the water in their wells has.

No time to reposition

We gathered that story and met our satellite truck where Highway 103 meets the Jordan River. It was still pretty low at this point, so we beavered away at preparing our material to be fed via satellite to Halifax.

A few minutes prior to 6 p.m., I assumed my position in front of the camera on those exposed rocks in the Jordan River. The river was definitely higher, but we were committed. The show was about to air and there was no time to reposition.

After our reports on well digging in Shelburne and a story on the dry weather's impacts on farming in the Annapolis Valley from CBC reporter Paul Palmeter, I "threw back" as we say in the business to co-host Amy Smith in the dry studio in Halifax.

What the audience did not see is the calamity that followed.

In those short few minutes we were on the air, the tide began to fill that section of the Jordan River. The once-dry soles of my shoes were now underwater. My camera operator was up to his ankles. The cable connecting us to the satellite was underwater. And still the tide water was coming. Fast.

'Mayday' call

I grabbed a lighting box and rushed to the river bank. Eric made a "mayday" call to our satellite truck operator, David Laughlin, who grabbed the camera. While we hurriedly repositioned for our next appearance on the program, he fished the tripod to safety from the now rapidly flowing river.

The irony here, of course, is this: We are a province surrounded by water and yet great swathes of Nova Scotia are dry, thirsty for potable water.

People here in Shelburne County hope that like the tide, the days of well water they can count on will once again return quickly.