Mom wants quicker reform on disaster preparations, one year after flood took son

The mother of a boy who died a year ago in a Nova Scotia flood says her grief returns daily, along with frustration over what she considers the province's slow pace in reforming its preparations for climate disasters.

Tera Sisco's six-year-old son Colton Sisco died after the vehicle he was in overturned during torrential thunderstorms on July 22, 2023. About 258 millimetres of rain to the municipality of West Hants — a rural area northwest of Halifax — fell during the overnight flash flood.

"It's still a struggle, every day," said Sisco in a recent telephone interview. As the one-year mark of her son's death approached, she said her memories of being with him before the flooding are "on replay."

"It's hard. ... there's part of me that still doesn't want to believe it happened."

Natalie Harnish, six, died in the same vehicle as Sisco, while 52-year-old Nick Holland and 14-year-old Terri-Lynn Keddy were swept away from a vehicle on the same road and also died.

The tragedy has drawn repeated calls for the Progressive Conservative government to improve the province's emergency alert system, as severe weather events are hitting the province with disturbing regularity.

A recent review released by the municipality of West Hants said two hours and 41 minutes passed between the first rescue responses and the province sending an alert urging citizens to "shelter in place." Blair Feltmate, director of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo has called that "far too long a delay.”

Sisco said she was disturbed that during flooding in the Annapolis Valley on July 11, it again required about three hours between the first reports of rescues and an emergency alert going out. On that night, 13-year-old Eli Young was swept into a drainage ditch in Wolfville an hour before an alert was sent.

"My heart breaks for that family and for that boy, and for the community," said Sisco.

John Lohr, the minister responsible for the Emergency Measures Organization, said in an interview Thursday municipalities had the responsibility to send alerts to provincial authorities for distribution. He has sent a letter to wardens and mayors asking they "be more vigilant in issuing alerts," and asked them to "schedule refresher training for appropriate municipal staff as necessary."

However, Sisco said the bottom line is that government, a year later, didn't seem to have made significant improvements to the alert system's timeliness.

"It's a finger pointing thing currently, and I feel like ultimately all levels of government need to sit down and really focus on how we move forward to fix the problem, rather than play the blame game," she said.

Lohr said there is training available for regional emergency planners and other municipal staff who want to directly send alerts, and there are also courses provided on how to fill out the forms to send to the provincial emergency centre.

The minister said the government plans to bring in legislation creating a new department responsible for overseeing regional emergency measures. He also has promised to establish a new volunteer group for emergency response referred to as the Nova Scotia Guard, and to modernize the emergency management and alert system.

Lohr said the Nova Scotia Guard will permit citizens to enter themselves in a database indicating skills they can offer after emergencies — "whether handling a chainsaw or making sandwiches" — and he said the province would call upon the volunteers when needed.

The opposition parties have criticized the concept, saying they fear it could potentially drain existing volunteer pools.

Sisco is concerned potential firefighters, who carry out crucial rescues during emergencies, may choose to join the new volunteer group rather than take on the heavier training workload in the fire or rescue services.

"There's still a lot that has to be worked on and figured out before we really start saying whether we should implement it (the Nova Scotia Guard)," she said. "I'm not sure at this point how it is going to help."

Sisco is instead urging the minister to focus on reforming existing systems, such as ensuring that regional emergency co-ordinators are full-time positions, rather than part-time roles carried out by officials with other responsibilities. In addition, she's lobbying for effective, on-call systems to ensure a municipal official is constantly available to either request or send an alert.

Lohr said moving towards a quicker system has been complicated by consultations that indicate many volunteer fire departments are reluctant to become directly responsible for sending emergency notices. However, he said his department is working towards more firefighters and police taking on the role.

"A year from now, my expectation is that we'll have the Nova Scotia Guard ... we'll have a new department; we'll have fire services trained with this tool," said the minister.

Brett Tetanish, the chief of the Brooklyn volunteer fire department, which responded to the scene of the four deaths, said in an interview there are now 15 members trained in water rescue and the department has acquired several boats. However, like Sisco, he's looking for governments to work together swiftly to allow quicker alerts, and for better cellular service in his rural area.

"I just want these levels of government to work together. They owe it to the citizens of this province and to the rescuers," he said.

Meanwhile, Sisco said this week she'll have to step back from advocacy and try to look after herself.

"I've had to learn the fine balance of researching ways to improve emergency preparations, and giving myself some grace and time to breathe," she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 22, 2024.