N.B. begins recovery after storms

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People all along New Brunswick's east coast are now cleaning up the damage inflicted on homes and roads after two days of high winds, heavy rain and storm surges.

Environment Canada ended all of its severe weather warnings for New Brunswick on Thursday.

The province may be spared another extreme weather system, but conditions are expected to remain windy and wet.

That break in the weather is allowing people to begin picking up the pieces from the powerful storms that forced hundreds of residents from their homes on Tuesday and Wednesday. The storms wrought damage that people in some communities along the coast say they have never seen before.

In Bouctouche, the southeastern town saw significant damage to roads and one of its most popular tourist attractions.

Large sections of the boardwalk along the dunes at the Irving Eco-Centre were ripped out and strewn along the coast.

Bouctouche resident Janelle Leblanc said she's still in shock about the magnitude of damage that hit the dunes.

"It's quite devastating to me. I've never seen it so bad. This is the worst of the worst," Leblanc said.

Roughly 30 kilometres away from Bouctouche, some of New Brunswick's other tourist hotspots were in the process of cleaning up.

Parlee Beach Provincial Park witnessed significant damage, the main street of Shediac was flooded and the Pointe-du-Chene wharf was also under water.

Dave Mullin, a long-time local cottage owner, said this weather system will go down in the history books.

"I've been out here 50 years and I've never seen anything like this in my life and I've seen a lot of storms," Mullin said.

"It's unbelievable, the damage around the back streets and down at the wharf is incredible."

Communities further north along New Brunswick's coastline were not spared from the high waters this week.

Martin Doucet spent Wednesday pumping water out of his home in Rexton.

Doucet said he's seen storms hit the east coast town before but he was unprepared for the size of the storm that hit on Tuesday.

"I had to leave, the water was coming up to my step and I had to leave," Doucet said.

"So we took off. We came back last night and there was about three inches of water on my floor."

Now he's cleaning up and hoping to move on from this week's wild weather.

The storms also brought a harrowing time for Brad Keely, who owns a video store in Richibucto.

"My store is located right next to the wharf. It was probably about 25 feet or 30 feet away from my store," Kelly said.

"You know tense moments for a while but when it started subsiding at supper time it went down pretty quick."

Meanwhile, all along the coast the cost of these storms are still being calculated.

Disaster financial assistance is already available for people who were affected by northern storm surges on Dec. 3 and 4 and the flood that hit southern and western communities on Dec. 13 and 14.

Roughly 500 have already registered for disaster relief funding from the provincial government for storms that happened earlier this month.

The Department of Public Safety is asking residents who were affected by this week's storms to report their damage. The provincial government is assessing the damage caused by the storm surges.
 
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