BELLEORAM, N.L. – The mayor of a town on Newfoundland’s south coast is blaming culverts for damage done by heavy rains from post-tropical storm Ophelia on Monday.
Belleoram Mayor Steward May says the rush of water damaged a road leading to a church and forced the evacuation of five homes, including his own.
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He says in order to return several hours later, he and others had to dig through about a metre of debris and rocks in front of their homes.
May says the provincial Transportation Department installed culverts on the main highway a few years ago that can’t handle the water flow and officials are in town assessing the damage.
Meanwhile, residents of Trouty on the Bonavista Peninsula are echoing May’s concerns.
Community spokesman Hedley Johnson says the rain washed out a road that had only just been repaired after being damaged by hurricane Igor last year.
Johnson says when Transportation employees were doing the repair work he told them the culverts they were putting in needed to be bigger.
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