High water | People anxious as water levels continue to rise in river valley

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By JIM DUMVILLE
The Bugle-Observer

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WOODSTOCK - Communities along the Upper St. John River Valley are feeling the impact of a major ice floe as it makes its way downriver.

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Jim Dumville

Hitching a ride: Benny Drost, at right holding his dog, was one of the eight people rescued from the flood waters in Riverbank, near Florenceville, this week. Drost said inspectors told him his home was a write-off because of flood damage.

STEPHEN MACGILLIVRAY PHOTO

Not moving: Ice is jammed under the Penniac Bridge and shows no sign of moving downstream. A tractor trailer drives along Route 8 in the background.

Flood waters that forced the overnight evacuation Monday of more than 200 people from Perth-Andover quickly receded as an ice jam at the town's main bridge broke up Tuesday.

Rising waters courtesy of an ice jam just south of Florenceville chased four families from their homes in Riverbank. On Monday, the ice floe stopped temporarily in Hartland, creating waters levels beyond those even longtime residents of the Covered Bridge community could recall.

"In 68 years, I never saw anything like it," said Don Shaw, who has lived his entire life near the historic bridge.

By Tuesday afternoon, Woodstock residents and emergency measures officials stared at the stalled ice floe, wondering what the St. John River had in store for them.

Benny Drost watched the river Tuesday afternoon as he stood in downtown Hartland.

"I never saw it this high," he said.

But it was the day before at his home in Riverbend - 14 kilometres north of Hartland - that Drost felt the wrath of the mighty St. John River.

His family was one of four evacuated. Just before he, his family and pets jumped into the bucket of a backhoe to be carried through the water, Drost heard the basement wall of his home collapse.

He learned the extend of the damage Tuesday morning.

"They wrote off my home this morning," said Drost as he watched flood waters overtake Hartland's waterfront, including the old train bridge, which now serves as part of the walking trail.

Hartland fire Chief Mike Walton and members of his department, EMO officials, Department of Transportation personnel, town crews and a score of volunteers helped waterfront homeowners.

The owners of a half-dozen homes along Lower Main Street fought throughout the day to pump water from their basements.

Walton and members of the fire department provided or found extra pumps in an effort to keep up with the water.

Despite their efforts, some homeowners will face substantial damage from this year's flooding.

Late Sunday, flood waters blocked Route 105 at Hartland's south end. While the waters began to recede late Monday, the road remains closed as Transportation crews remove huge blocks of ice left behind.

The world's longest covered bridge was closed Monday afternoon as the famous landmark withstood the battering from the fast-flowing ice.

The covered bridge will have to be inspected before it can be reopened to traffic.

Since Monday evening, the ice has remained stalled at Woodstock.

As of late Tuesday afternoon, the rising waters had caused only a few problems in town.

The New Brunswick Community College-Woodstock campus in downtown Woodstock closed its back parking lots as the Meduxnekeag River overflowed.