More water is on the way for the already storm battered southwest coast of Newfoundland, as two washed out sections of the Trans-Canada Highway reopened Monday and helicopters continued to transport people over remaining washouts.
Environment Canada has issued a rainfall warning for Port aux Basques, Burgeo and Ramea that could bring another 60 to 80 millimetres to an area that last week saw record-breaking totals and a lot of damage, according to meteorologist Dale Foote.
Foote, with the weather office in Gander, says there could be up to 100 mm over higher terrain over the next 36 hours.
"That rain is expected to begin this evening, or late this afternoon for Port aux Basques, and continue to probably around lunch time on Tuesday with heavy rain at times," he told CBC Radio's Newfoundland Morning on Monday.
"We've got wind warnings out for Port aux Basques, right on up through to Hawke's Bay, with winds picking up this evening gusting up to 130 [km/h] in the Wreckhouse area and up to 100 in areas north of that."
Foote said there's definitely concern about the potential for flooding along the southwest coast. He said the area is at higher risk than what it would be normally given the rain that had fallen last week.
He said Environment Canada meteorologists have made emergency preparedness teams aware of the forecast.
With the rain expected to taper off Tuesday afternoon, Foote said flurries could be right behind it Tuesday night and into Wednesday for the southwest coast, west coast and part of the Northern Peninsula.
"So the rain will stop, but it will be strong westerly winds and snow squalls at times," he said.
Slow going
Crews are slowly but surely rebuilding roads, but some residents of the southwest coast couldn't wait for them to finish.
Melton Keeping lives in Burnt Islands, about 30 kilometres east of Port aux Basques and accessible only by Route 470.
He works aboard vessels, sailing the Great Lakes, and had to catch a flight out of Deer Lake on Monday.
Keeping got a ride as far as the first barricade near Port aux Basques on Sunday morning, where a section of road was washed out from last week's storm. So with luggage in hand he crossed to the other side of the uncompleted rebuild on foot.
"The biggest part of it is all filled in now," he said. "It's holding its own. They know what they're doing. They've got good guys working at it."
Keeping hitched a ride and crossed another section of washout to land in North Branch. Then another stroll followed by another hitched ride put him in Stephenville where he and another traveller waited for a lift to Corner Brook.
Keeping said the people in Port aux Basques are feeling the frustration of the road closures and rerouted ferry services, but things are slowly coming together with Marine Atlantic ferry shipments making their way to the community and refilling gas stations in the area.
Meanwhile, some business owners north of the affected stretch of road are feeling the stress of a delayed supply chain as well.
James Gallant owns Killick Cafe in Stephenville where one of his shipments was cancelled and another delayed.
"I think there's going to be some unforeseen difficulties that may arise," he said.
"If they don't show up one day, and I can't find a suitable cost effective substitute, it hurts your bottom line."
Gallant also owns a gift shop, and heading into the holiday season he's worried his shipments may come too late.
"We have things sitting in North Sydney that cannot reach us. Our season is short now, we're a month away," he said.
"We're good for right now, but in the next week or two if things don't arrive we're going to have empty spots on our shelves. And Christmas items don't sell in January."
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