Rainstorm, flash freeze lead to dozens of road closures across N.S.

Dozens of roads in Nova Scotia are closed due to flooding and ice buildup after heavy rain and a flash freeze Friday in the province.

The closures span from Digby to northern Cape Breton, with a large concentration in the Annapolis Valley along sections of Highway 101. Some sections of Highway 302 in Cumberland County are also closed.

According to the province's 511 road conditions map, most of the closures are being caused by flooding and washouts. Some detours are in place.

A spokesperson for the Department of Public Works said there were approximately 40 closures and detours across the province at the peak of Friday's storm. About 25 remained Saturday afternoon.

In northern Cape Breton, a section of the Cabot Trail is closed between Pleasant Bay and Cape North due to heavy rain, erosion and washout.

Natasha Briand came across the washed-out section while trying to get home to South Harbour from Chéticamp on Friday afternoon after getting a call that her basement was flooding. She had just driven on that same stretch of road heading to Chéticamp an hour earlier.

"I didn't expect to come across that in the short hour that we were actually gone.... That road really, really took a bad beating with that water coming down. It was a major rush of water," she said.

When she got to the roadblock and explained her situation to the Parks Canada worker, Briand said he escorted her across, clearing rocks and chunks of asphalt out her way as she slowly drove through.

"You could feel the water on the tires, you could feel the rocks ... but I definitely didn't have three hours to spare to drive around," she said.

Briand said she's grateful to the Parks Canada employee who helped her get home to deal with the flooding before temperatures plummeted and the water froze.

Robie Gourd, project manager with Parks Canada, said people who live in the area are facing a detour of more than four hours, much like last November when a storm washed out parts of the Cabot Trail between Neils Harbour and Ingonish.

Crews are still on the ground assessing the extent of the damage. Gourd said it's too early to say how long repairs will take.

"There's still a lot of water coming off the mountain," he said.

"There's about a kilometre section on North Mountain that asphalt's crumbling on one side and being undermined, and there's another section where the water has sort of hopped the highway and is taking the lane on the other side."

The storm also knocked out power for thousands across the province. Outages peaked around 42,000 customers on Friday afternoon but almost all outages have since been restored.