Child pulled into water-filled ditch dies after flash floods in Wolfville

CITYnews halifax / By Mark Hodgins

A youth has been found dead after Thursday night’s flash flooding in Kings County and other communities in Nova Scotia, the RCMP said.

Police are not releasing the age of the youth who was pulled into a water-filled ditch at a park on Highland Avenue in Wolfville, N.S. around 7:40 p.m.

At a press conference on Friday, Staff Sergeant Ed Nugent said the youth and three friends had been playing at the park when the flooding happened. Search and rescue teams deployed efforts by diverting the drainage system from the ditch.

At 11:30 p.m. crews found the remains of the youth.

Related:

• Flash flooding reported in Nova Scotia after heavy rain from thunderstorms
• Heavy rain causes devastation to area of N.S. still recovering from flooding last year
• Hurricane Beryl’s remnants bring rainfall warnings for Ontario and Quebec

“This is something that’s completely unimaginable,” Premier Tim Houston said at a press conference on Friday. “It’s incredibly devastating. There is tremendous infrastructure damage throughout the valley. That will be rebuilt but none of that will replace the loss of a young life that’s been lost here.”

Wolfville Mayor Wendy Donovan said that the devastation from the floods this year and last year are a first for the community.

“The weather events in our communities that we experience this year and last year and a few years ago are beyond anything that I think most of us have ever experienced before,” she said. “Responding to them will take all of us as we anticipate and respond to this new normal.”

With files from CityNews Halifax’s Natasha O’Neill.