Eli Young, 13, was killed during last week's flash flooding in Nova Scotia.Dan Jardine Photography/Supplied
The Nova Scotia government has vowed to fix delays in sending out emergency alerts and it reprimanded municipalities that failed to initiate warnings about dangerous conditions during last week’s fatal flash flood that killed 13-year-old Eli Young in Wolfville, N.S.
A similar tragedy occurred a year ago when two children, a teenager and a man were swept to their deaths in flood waters in the community of West Hants.
In both cases, there were bottlenecks at the municipal level that resulted in hours-long delays in sending out emergency alerts.
“We ask them to be more vigilant in issuing alerts,” said Emergency Measures Organization Minister John Lohr in a letter sent to wardens and mayors of Nova Scotia municipalities on Tuesday. “Alerts will be issued within 15 minutes of receiving a request. We ask that you reach out this week to schedule refresher training for appropriate municipal staff as necessary.”
An emergency alert was issued last Thursday night, nearly an hour after Eli was swept by a torrent of water into a ditch, and two to three hours after emergency crews had already been responding to calls related to heavy rain and flooding in Kings County, where Eli lived.
In Nova Scotia, current regulations state that emergency alerts can only be requested by municipalities, despite Premier Tim Houston declaring 11 months ago he was looking to change this, but during last week’s flood, the province took the unusual step of sending one itself, after none was requested by any of the communities affected by the deluge.
Eli’s family say they are still struggling to understand how he was killed so suddenly. His death has shocked everyone who knew him, said his mother Amanda Young, father Rodney Samson, stepfather Michael Wentworth and stepmother Jesi Leigh Barber in a statement to The Globe and Mail.
Eli, a brother to four siblings, was a charming, extroverted child who soared through the streets on his scooter and bicycle with no hands, named his kitten Bob so he could tell people he had a bobcat, and collected Nike sneakers.
“When he wasn’t convincing his parents to buy him new shoes, he was getting them to create beautiful storage and displays of the ones he already acquired,” wrote his parents. Recently, he saved up to buy his best friend’s old white Nikes and wore them even though they were a few sizes too big, explaining to his mom: “It’s about the memories, you don’t know where these have been.”
Eli in Montreal. Eli was remembered by his family as a cheerful and kind teen who collected Nike sneakers.Rodney Samson/Supplied
Eli was playing in a park near Acadia University with a friend when parts of Nova Scotia were inundated with 100 millimetres of rain in just a few hours last Thursday, flooding homes and destroying roads. Flood waters pulled him into a ditch and he disappeared under a torrent of water at 7:40 p.m. local time.
Dozens of police, firefighters and search and rescue teams looked for the boy, only to recover his remains after water was drained from the area nearly four hours later. An online fundraiser to support his family has already raised more than $44,000.
“It’s very difficult to understand how someone so young could be taken from us so suddenly,” wrote Eli’s parents. “He was such a bright light in our lives, always cheerful, always happy, always kind.”
After another flash-flooding death, expert says Nova Scotia needs robust alert system — now
Last August, after the fatal flooding in West Hants, Mr. Houston said he would consider extending the power to issue emergency alerts to lower level decision makers, including fire officials, as in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
On Tuesday, Mr. Houston said training is now under way to expand authorization of issuing emergency alerts to fire officials, municipal police forces and other first responders. When asked why that wasn’t already in place, he responded, “These are complex situations.” He said first responders need specific training on whether to alert people to shelter in place or get out.
“Sometimes with these flash floods, they’re not predictable so it’s hard to predict what to do, but the training is happening, the training will be there and we will work to get it right,” Mr. Houston told reporters at the Council of the Federation meeting in Halifax.
The province introduced legislation in March to establish a new department to improve emergency readiness and establish a volunteer corps called the Nova Scotia Guard. The legislation, expected to pass this fall, would allow new authority to make regulations on regional alerts.
Kings County chief administrative officer Scott Conrod did not respond to questions from The Globe.
A university professor who studies climate change and flood preparedness expressed frustration that recommendations made in his 2020 report appear to have been ignored by provincial officials.
“These alerts should be going out between zero and 30 minutes. From the time that people in authority recognize the problem, it should be a very rapid response to shelter in place or other direction to get people to stay off the roads when these extreme flood events are occurring,” said Blair Feltmate, head of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at University of Waterloo in Ontario.
“It could also be the thing that says to parents: ‘Holy cow, my kids are outside playing right now. Where are they? Get them in the house.’ Because you just never know what child is playing close to a stream or a creek that all of a sudden turns into a torrent through flash floods.”