Water flows through a washed-out culvert on the main CN Rail line which leads to the port of Halifax, after the heaviest rain to hit the Atlantic Canadian province of Nova Scotia in more than 50 years triggered floods, in Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada July 23, 2023. Nigel Gloade/Millbrook First Nations/Handout via REUTERS.
OTTAWA (Reuters) -Two of the four people missing after floods ripped through the Canadian Atlantic province of Nova Scotia over the weekend are dead, Premier Tim Houston said on Monday.
Police earlier confirmed the death of a 52-year-old man who was reported missing after his car became submerged and said they had found a second body most likely to be one of the four people who disappeared as waters rose.
"I extend my deepest sympathies to the families and friends of the two people who passed away following floods," Houston said in a statement confirming the second body was one of the four people who went missing in the region of Halifax, the province's largest city.
The storm, which started on Friday, in some places dumped more than 25 cm (10 inches) in just 24 hours - as much as normally falls in three months.
The floods washed away roads, swamped buildings and damaged bridges and a Canadian National Railway track connecting with Halifax, Canada's fourth-largest port.
Canadian National has already restored much of the damaged infrastructure, but some repairs will be delayed until the flood waters recede, company spokesman Scott Brown said.
Vessel service has not yet been hit by the track closure and the port is working to manage storing cargoes strategically, said port authority communications director Lane Farguson.
"With supply chains the reality is the longer the disruption lasts, the more severe the impact is," he said by phone.
Farguson said 60% of the cargoes that move through the port are rail based, and many contain consumer goods manufactured in Europe or southeast Asia that are on their way to large population centers in eastern Canada and the U.S. Midwest.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Additional reporting by Nia Williams in British Columbia; Editing by Aurora Ellis and Grant McCool)
