Flooding concerns prompt Cape Breton senior to fend for herself

A senior citizen in Westmount, across the harbour from Sydney, N.S.,has been digging shallow trenches in her backyard this week.

Barb Cameron, 73, spent her afternoonsdigging with a trowel in an effort to avoid a flood in her basement this weekend.

CBC meterologist Ryan Snoddon predicts Cape Breton will get up to 50 mm of rain.

"I'm hoping these ditches are going to be enough to haul that water away from my windows, basement windows," Camerson said. "And again I am looking at a weekend where I am not going to sleep much."

She has lived on Applecross Drive for 42 years, but she said she only began having flooding problems a year ago, after MacLennan Junior High school, which was directly behind her property, was demolished.

"My ground now is lower than where they torn down the school," she said "They left the ground higher there, interfered apparently with the drainage."

Cameron said she went to city hall last week and spoke to the director of planning for the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. She also contacted Steve Gillespie, her municipal councillor.

Gillespie said an engineer will have to look into the issue and find a solution, as other homes in the area also experienced flooding.

Cameron said CBRM workers came out to her home and took pictures of the property.

She said she is confident they will find and fix the problem, but in the meantime she had to take matters into her own hands.

"One day I spent most of the day out here because, when the sediment gathers, I have to remove that so the water will keep flowing," she said.

"I'd like to see them get it back the way it was before they demolished the school and find the source of where they had the sewers before, when they had the water running away, and not have this problem."

With files from Norma Jean MacPhee