MONTREAL: Four people in Canada, including two children, were missing on Saturday following flooding caused by torrential rains in Nova Scotia, police said.
The children were in a car that was submerged, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said. The other three people in the car managed to escape.
In a separate incident in Eastern Province, a youth and a man were reported missing under similar circumstances, the police agency said.
Heavy rains in Nova Scotia since Friday cut off roads and flooded homes.
Premier Tim Houston told a news conference that the province had received about 25 cm (10 inches) of rain – the equivalent of three months’ rainfall – in less than 24 hours.
Houston declared a state of emergency in several areas of the province and urged residents not to join the search for the missing because “conditions remain dangerous.”
He estimated it would take several days for the water to recede.
People in the Windsor region were ordered to evacuate in the middle of the night due to the danger of flooding causing a dam to burst.
But relief valves were opened early Saturday to relieve pressure and the situation is now under control, Windsor Mayor Abraham Zebian said.
News footage and pictures on social media showed roads that looked like rivers and many cars abandoned in the water.
Environment Canada’s weather service said heavy rain is expected in the eastern part of the province through the evening.
