Numerous Newfoundland communities have been left drenched and damaged by the torrential rains dumped on them by post-tropical storm Chantal.
Roads in the Avalon Peninsula have been washed away and homes flooded by the major weather event, causing Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams to visit the area on Wednesday to personally assess the damage.
"We saw some major cuts in the road, the road just washed away," Williams told NTV News, referring to the Ship Harbour-Long Harbour area on the east shore of Placentia Bay.
"We had no idea what we were in store for when we came into the Placentia-Dunnville area."
Dunnville has been hit worse than Placentia, he said.
"In Dunnville, there is devastation on both sides of the road. One home has water going through both sides," Williams said in Dunnville.
He saw his job at the moment as being one to support municipal officials and to reassure citizens "that we'll be there for them."
They have asked people to start gathering the information needed to file damage claims. Only when that information comes in will they be able to put an accurate estimate on the disaster's costs, he said.
Holding a news conference on a bridge with water rushing underneath, Bay Roberts Mayor Glenn Littlejohn told reporters it would take some time to assess how badly his community had been hit.
"We've got to get our engineers in to do an assessment of this bridge and other bridges, as well as other roadways in the area," he said.
The deluge began Tuesday night and ended Wednesday morning. Severe flooding was reported in several communities after some areas were blanketed by 100 millimetres of rain and pummelled with 80 km/h winds.
Environment Canada reported 150 millimetres in the Whitbourne area. St. John's, the capital, reported more than 100 mm of rainfall.
A state of emergency was declared in several communities, but some were lifted by mid-afternoon.
TV images showed heavy water-flow levels in the normally placid brooks running down to Placentia Bay.
St. John's is sopping wet
In sections of St. John's, including some downtown neighbourhoods, several businesses had to close their doors as a result of unexplained power outage.
The weather system also delayed the opening of the annual Royal St. John's Regatta and made navigating downtown St. John's tricky.
The George Street steps in the downtown area turned into temporary waterfalls, with water cascading down them. A bar adjacent to the steps got flooded when a welded-on drain cover popped from the pressure.
"There is a lot of flooding on the streets, a lot of manholes popping," said Paul Mackey, director of public works for St. John's.
City workers concentrated on cleaning out catch basins and making sure the water could drain quickly.
Despite the intense rainfall, Mackey said it didn't appear the city suffered any serious damage to its infrastructure, but the picture would become clearer in the coming days.
A bulletin issued at 6:30 p.m. local time said Chantal was about 425 kilometres northeast of St. John's. The storm was moving northeast at 70 km/h.
Chantal is the third named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.
In late May, U.S. forecasters said they expected a busier than normal Atlantic hurricane season, with estimates ranging from 13 to 17 tropical storms and seven to 10 of those becoming hurricanes.
The Atlantic hurricane season, which officially runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, averages 9.6 named storms, with 5.9 of them becoming hurricanes and 2.3 major hurricanes.
The U.S.-based National Hurricane Center said Wednesday a tropical depression may form in the next couple of days and enter the Caribbean.
With files from NTV correspondents and The Canadian Press
