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Canadian Red Cross volunteers assist dozens stranded in Meat Cove

	Photo: courtesy of CBC

A team of five Canadian Red Cross disaster management volunteers and staff are providing assistance in the small community of Meat Cove, Nova Scotia. They arrived in the area late Monday evening in response to a request from local emergency officials to help residents and tourists stranded at the northern tip of Cape Breton Island due to washed out roads caused by weekend flash flooding.

The Canadian Red Cross brought supplies from the Sydney Red Cross office, a three-hour drive away, and set up a comfort centre with cots for 10 people. Volunteers are providing blankets, bottled water and personal-care kits to the stranded visitors and residents. They are also picking up prescriptions and other supplies. Canadian Red Cross volunteers are being transported to the community by boat, which are also being used to deliver food and to ferry out some tourist who opted to leave their vehicles behind. The Canadian Red Cross is working with local and provincial partners on this response.

About 35 residents and up to 50 campers were stranded Saturday after bridges, culverts and sections of highway washed out along the only road access to the tiny but scenic community of Meat Cove, overlooking the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It's expected to be several days until a temporary bridge can be put in place.

Learn more:

• Canadian Red Cross actions in disasters in Canada
• Canadian Red Cross support to provinces, territories and municipalities

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Posted August 24, 2010