After 2 frantic days, life slowly returns to normal in many Newfoundland towns

While a handful of Newfoundland communities prepare to endure some extended inconvenience as a result of this week's heavy rainstorm, many others are slowly returning to normal.

One by one, many of the towns hit by flooding and damaged infrastructure began lifting their states of emergency on Tuesday evening and Wednesday.

• 'A man's house is his castle': South coast communities remain stranded in wake of storm

"We're OK," Roy Drake, mayor of the south coast town of Harbour Breton, told CBC News Wednesday, adding that its emergency status would be lifted in the afternoon.

"Things are getting back to normal," echoed Brian Sceviour, mayor of Lewisporte, on Notre Dame Bay.

More than 60 homes flooded

Many towns activated their emergency plans as torrents of rain drenched large swaths of the island over a 36-hour period, with the central, south and western regions hardest hit. Environment Canada recorded rainfalls of up to 160 millimetres, although many private weather stations recorded much more.

Important connector roads were washed out or were swamped by water, brooks overflowed their banks and many homes were flooded.

Sceviour said more than 60 homeowners reported water damage in Lewisporte, caused mostly when a brook that flows along Main Street spilled over its banks and flooded an area between Layte's Avenue and Wildwood Street.

Sceviour said town workers and volunteer firefighters worked around-the-clock to pump water away from the residential area, and to protect a key bridge through the community that serves a vital link for other towns north and east of Lewisporte.

"It was a real team effort and everyone did a great job," said Sceviour.

Lewisporte has population of about 3,500 residents, and is a gateway for neighbouring communities.

But that gateway was cut off by a washout on the highway near Embree, isolating the community of Little Burnt Bay until repairs were made Tuesday evening, while the bridge going into Brown's Arm, Laurenceton and Burnt Arm remained impassable as of Wednesday morning.

Residents in the community were expressing concern at the situation, noting there is not even a convenience store in the area.

"We are totally dependent on access to Lewisporte for all our services," Mary McLay wrote in an email to CBC News.

Back to school in Harbour Breton

In Harbour Breton, the town's road system took a beating from the raging water, and a critical intersection is expected to be reduced to a single lane for the next several days.

Classes at the two schools in Harbour Breton resumed Wednesday, but buses were kept off the roads as a precaution.

Mayor Drake said the temporary closure of Route 360 — a 200-kilometre stretch of road that winds from Bishop's Falls to Harbour Breton — raised serious alarms Tuesday because the town's only ambulance was in Grand Falls-Windsor.

The highway reopened at about 9 p.m. Tuesday night, Drake said.

"Right now we can get around town, the children are back in school and the people are working at the plant," Drake said.

• On the brink: Gander facing water outage as lake continues to rise

There was no state of emergency in Grand Falls-Windsor, one of the largest towns in central Newfoundland, but Mayor Barry Manuel said dozens of homes received some flooding.

Manuel said the town's infrastructure held up, but the volume of water was just too much in some cases for the storm sewer system.

"It was an extreme weather event," said Manuel. "We received about seven inches of water."