Rising flood waters, cause for concern?

Okay is it just me or is anyone else a little bit concerned about the rising flood waters in several parts of Nova Scotia?

The videos on the news media websites, if you care to view, are terrifying. Picture yourself waking up in the middle of the night, in pitch darkness. The power is out and your phone is dead. You hear water rushing and look out your bedroom window and realize the foundation and part of the first story of your house is submerged in freezing cold, dark, fast moving water. You wonder how you and your family will get out of this alive. If by some remote chance you are rescued or miraculously make your way to safety, where does safety lie?

A few years ago I found a map online predicting rising sea levels in the future. The Atlantic provinces were completely submerged.

As a person of modest means, I don’t have the means to pack up my family and move. I have been looking into job opportunities in my field however the cost of moving is prohibitive not to mention childcare. I have small children at home, the youngest being a baby who is less than a year old. My other children don’t know how to swim.

Am I completely nuts to wish that I could afford to buy life jackets for my family, survival gear (because the floodwater is not likely to be warm at this time of year), and a small boat to keep on standby?

Should there be a plan for us to evacuate, and I don’t just mean if the rain doesn’t stop right now. I mean permanently. Like could we be resettled elsewhere in Canada. Olden day style, we get an axe and a wheel (j.k.) and a lot of land type of deal. If we make it, we make it, if we don’t, we starve.

In my mid thirties, I am hardy stock. I grew up in the country and I can raise livestock, cut and rank wood, garden, make and mend clothing, quilt, fish (my whole family back home are fishermen), hunt (snares mostly but I’m an excellent tracker too), and preserve with the best of them. In preparation for a possible deterioration of our industrial world and a return to the days when we had to take care of ourselves and not depend on the big box stores, I have collected instructions and recipes for many useful things including for making shoes, building boats and small structures. I have cooked and served deer, rabbit (shake and bake is delicious if a bit greasy), as well as elk while living in Alberta several years ago.

I have baked my own bread from the age of 14 and rarely pay sales tax at the grocery store as most of my food is made from scratch. I would be content (or should I say thanking my lucky stars, overjoyed) if I was allotted a bit of land on the higher ground. I know this is a far fetched idea, but after recently reading a population overview of Canada I noticed there is a lot of land that is unoccupied in the far north.

I realize it would be no picnic but I would rather live a life of labour than watch my family drown in a flood. Show me where to sign up for a mass migration up north and I’m on my way, yesterday. I have a good working car that I will pack up in a heart beat if I can secure a destination.

If the low lying land bridge between NS and NB becomes submerged, we will effectively be an island with little chance of leaving.

For examples of what could happen, search for the “Saxby Gale, Bay of Fundy” to read a story of incredibly devastating flooding that happened not so long ago.

I am so frustrated, afraid, and tired of the lack of decisive, fore-thinking action. Lets not let this get out of control and then try to fix or bandage the situation in the wake of the disaster.

Call me crazy if you want. I firmly believe this is an issue of genuine concern. The time is NOW. —Wishing I had a big boat

This article appears in Nov 11-17, 2010.