N.B. storm recovery costs could hit $50M

New Brunswick's Emergency Measures Organization says the cost of repairing the damage from three recent storms may hit $50 million.

Residents in the northern community of Charlo and several communities along the east coast and in the southwestern part of the province are cleaning up after a series of storms.

Ernie MacGillivary, the EMO director, said structural repairs and replacements, government disaster relief, private insurance and other costs to citizens could hit $50 million.

Eastern New Brunswick was slammed by heavy rain, strong winds and storm surges this week, damaging about 100 homes, by EMO's latest estimate, between Port Elgin in the southeast and Miramichi in the northeast.

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

Later in the day, the New Brunswick government officially extended disaster assistance to people affected by the storm. Fourteen inspection teams working out of the hard-hit community of Shediac will carry out preliminary inspections, the first step in the financial assistance process.

Assistance had already been available for people affected by northern storm surges on Dec. 3 and 4 and by the flood that hit southern and western communities on Dec. 13 and 14.

The province has received 700 requests for disaster relief funding for storms that happened earlier this month.

About 60 people have received advance payments of up to $4,000.

Karl Wilmot, an EMO official, said the bills are starting to add up.

"When you take the combination of the situation of first of the month in Charlo and then last week and then this week, we are not done yet and $50 million is not an out-of-the-way figure," Wilmot said.

Harold Betts, a victim of the mid-December flooding in Zealand, N.B., northwest of Fredericton, struggled not to choke up as he discussed what he'd lost.

"Our house is destroyed," he told CBC News. "When you work hard all your life and something like this happens, you never know what's going to take place for compensation. We're hoping that the government will find enough damage to move our house out of this area, and I hate to, because this was my mother and father's property. There's sort of a sentimental value here that can't be replaced."

Donations sought

The Canadian Red Cross is appealing to the public to help those affected by the three storms.

Bill Lawlor, the director of disaster management at the Red Cross in Atlantic Canada, said the organization has received about 300 requests for donations from people caught in last week's floods in southwestern New Brunswick.

Lawlor said so far they've received $86,000 in cash donations. He said money goes further than donated supplies.

"It may not be exactly what the individuals who've been displaced require so we can take your cash donations and turn that into the most appropriate form of assistance for those families most in need at this time," he said.

Lawlor said it's only a matter of time before the demand for help grows and the window to ask for donations is small.

Improving conditions

The province's weather is still windy and wet, but Thursday's relative calm 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.

Roughly 30 kilometres from Bouctouche, 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 longtime 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."

On Caissie Cape, which is between Shediac and Bouctouche, fisherman Guy Caissie surveyed the wharf where he ties his boat in the spring and found a missing guardrail, broken lights and posts ripped from concrete

He fears rocks rolling around underwater may have damaged the piers. Caissie said fishermen will ask the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to repair the wharves — a bill he guesses could be up to $100,000.

Christian Brun, executive secretary of the Maritime Fishermen's Union, said that the spring fishing season will be upon the province quickly.

"I suppose the message that we're sending out is to do this quickly, in terms of government, if there are going to be funds to repair the damage," he said.

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

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."

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."