Hurricane Juan's Effects at our home in Gold River, Nova Scotia (Northwestern Mahone Bay)

by Stephen Hatt
Meteorologist, Maritimes Weather Centre
October 24, 2003

I am a Meteorologist at the Maritimes Weather Centre in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. I grew up close to where my wife, Schelene, and I now live in Gold River, Lunenburg County, NS. Gold River is located on Highway #3, halfway between Chester and Mahone Bay. We live quite close to the bay and our house is about a metre and half above the mean high tide level. We have built a seawall to protect the property from surf and storm surges.

From childhood I have always been fascinated by storms such as hurricanes. Even though I was only six years old, I remember how excited I was during Hurricane Blanche, which hit Nova Scotia's South Shore in 1975. I also remember the seaweed and driftwood that Blanche washed up on the land where our house now stands. Now, 28 years later, the same land was flooded and seaweed and driftwood were left behind once again. This time, my emotions were very mixed. While excitement over hurricanes and other storms is instinctive for me, I have a home and property that was in jeopardy of costly flood damage. The night of Juan was one of extreme worry and concern torn by the thrill of a hurricane making landfall close to home. It was the most emotional night for me in recent memory.

Here are some pictures of our house and property before Hurricane Juan.

Click on pictures to enlarge

Preparation on September 28 in advance of Juan

Here is what Schelene and I did on the morning of Sept. 28 to prepare for Hurricane Juan:

• All deck furniture was put in our storage building.
• We moved our vehicles to my grandmother's driveway, which is on higher land, to prevent salt water damage in the event of storm surge flooding.
• Everything in our storage building that could be damaged by flooding, such as saws, tools, etc., was put up high on benches and shelves.
• The east and south facing windows were boarded up.
• At the electrical panel, we shut off the power breakers for the outside plugs and for the electric heaters inside to prevent extra damage in the event of flooding.

The Night of Juan

At around the time that hurricane Juan made landfall near Prospect, the water level at our place peaked at about 1.3 to 1.4 metres above mean high tide. I measured the peak water level at 12 to 13 cm below the main floor of our house; this is how close we were to having our house flooded.

Here is how the events unfolded the night and early morning of September 28/29:

• 10:00 p.m. - the water level was half way up our rock seawall and the waves were splashing up over onto the sandy area.
• 11:50 p.m. - the property began to flood. Waves were breaking over the seawall and water was flowing across the lawn and the driveway.
• 00:13 a.m. - I told Schelene, "I hope this as high as it gets." I was standing at the doorway watching the water flood our property. Schelene was praying and staring at the clock . . . this is how we know the time so well. At this time water completely surrounded our house and was up the foundation to within 12 or 13 cm below the floor level inside the house. Our entire property was under water. Wood and lumber piled outside was being pushed by the water across the property toward the road. Water was also flowing across the road by our driveway. Looking out at my storage building, the water level was about 15 cm up the siding and I knew the water was about the same depth inside the building. I also looked around the corner and saw the waves breaking up against the deck and water was spraying up from between the deck boards like fountains.

I continued to stare at the water level from the doorway.

• 00:20 a.m. - I told my wife that the water level had not gotten any higher, but that it hadn't dropped either.
• 00:27 a.m. - the water had lowered 5 to 10 cm and I told my wife "were safe." (meaning no water in the house)
• 00:33 a.m. - the water level dropped rapidly and was flowing off of the property as fast as it could.
• 00:47 a.m. - water receded off of the property and appeared to be approximately where it should be by looking down on the shore.

Here are some pictures taken as the water started to flood our property.

Click on pictures to enlarge

The Aftermath

Other than the big mess of our yard, we had no major damage. Our house didn't have any wind damage or flooding. Damage to our yard included the following:

• One of our lawns had been eroded and the sods swept out to sea.
• Sand and beach rocks washed up into a mound on the lawn in front of our deck to about 25 cm deep.
• Two sets of Moon Rays lawn lamps were badly damaged and one set was completely destroyed.
• A lumber pile a metre high was swept across the property into the ditch by the road.
• A pile of firewood was also moved into the ditch.
• Many of our flowering shrubs and fruit trees had their leaves turn brown and fall off several days after the storm; this is likely due to salt damage. The extent of this damage won't be revealed until the leaves come out next spring.
• Our picnic table had floated about 30 feet from where it was originally located.

Here are some pictures of how Hurricane Juan's storm surge affected us.

Click on pictures to enlarge

As you can see, we were affected quite a bit by Hurricane Juan. However, as bad as it was, it could have been much worse. If this storm had tracked a bit farther west, we would have had tremendous wind and flood damage. But as it was, the night of Juan will always be one our most memorable nights.