A provincewide state of emergency (SOE) has been declared in Nova Scotia, today, July 22, in response to severe flooding across the province.

The following areas are currently the most affected: East and West Hants, Halifax Regional Municipality, Lunenburg and Queens counties. 

The order is in place to ensure the entire province is protected as the storm continues to progress.

“This is a very serious event. This flooding has been fast and furious, and we are taking strong action to ensure Nova Scotians are protected,” said John Lohr, Minister responsible for the Emergency Management Office. “As the rain and flood risk continues, we need people to stay off the roads so that first responders and critical infrastructure partners can do their work to restore our roads and power and keep people safe.”

The provincewide state of emergency is an administrative function under the Emergency Management Act. This state of emergency supersedes any municipal SOE and will allow for the Province to work with its partners in a coordinated provincewide response to and recovery from this event. 

The state of emergency will:
— limit travel in heavily impacted areas
— allow the deployment of key human and physical assets to aid in the response and recovery
— facilitate the coordinated restoration of impacted critical infrastructure

A state of emergency remains in effect for 14 days, until August 5, unless government terminates or extends it. 

Additional Resources:
Declaration of State of Emergency: https://novascotia.ca/storm-support/docs/state-of-emergency-rainfall-2023-07-22.pdf

Emergency Management Act: https://nslegislature.ca/sites/default/files/legc/statutes/emergency%20management.pdf

Nova Scotia Emergency Management Office emergency alerts and information: https://novascotia.ca/alerts/

Nova Scotia Emergency Management Office on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nsemo

Source: Release