A thunderstorm in the early morning hours Thursday left thousands of southwestern New Brunswickers without power — with some outages spanning into the afternoon.
According to NB Power’s outage map, over 3,000 residents living on Grand Manan, Campobello Island and Deer Island were still in the dark at the noon hour.
Elsewhere, most outages were restored in time for the morning commute, but the drive in was hampered by flooding and severe ponding on roadways.
In Saint John, at least six roads were partially closed in the morning as backed-up storm drains worked overtime to drain the flooding.
Most flooded areas dried up as the morning progressed, but areas along Bayside Drive still saw extensive amounts of water.
That’s where David Moore parked his car Wednesday night — and where friends of his saw it still parked in pictures on social media, submerged in up to four feet of water at the storm’s peak.
“I woke up this morning to about three missed calls and about four text messages that my car was flooded out, so I came out here and this is the condition it was in,” he says, gesturing to the sunken Subaru behind him.
“The water was a little bit higher but yeah, this is what I’m dealing with.”
Moore says he slept straight through the thunderstorm, which hit the region harder than post-tropical storm Elsa did last weekend.
Others, like 14-year-old William Bustard, were woken up.
“I woke up at 4:30 (a.m.) ‘cause all I heard was thunder and lightning,” Bustard says.
“So I went for a walk to see.”
Bustard says he’d never seen his neighbourhood so flooded, with roadways completely covered in water.
“I saw cars just trying to drive through the water and one guy was stuck,” he says.
“He climbed through the window and walked to work, I think.”
Bustard says he saw Moore’s submerged car and couldn’t believe it was real.
“I (blinked) my eyes twice because I didn’t think it was real but … it was flooded.”
Moore says he’s hoping the Subaru can be saved. He’s now navigating the insurance process.
“It holds a lot of sentimental value,” he says.
“Purchased the vehicle before my father had passed and he got to operate it once and it was his dream car.”
The flooding around his car will likely last longer than it will take for him to tow the car, with even more rain expected through the weekend.
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