'A lot of rain': Island deals with wet weather following storm

Much of the Island woke up Wednesday to warm, wet and stormy weather, with up to 43.4 mm of rain falling in some parts of the Island as of 4 p.m.

"First thing is the rain started coming down," said East Royalty resident Jamie Jardine. "It was going all night, actually."

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Worried about the amount of water in his ditch, Jardine usedhis sump pump to avoid flooding in his basement.

"It's pumping out as quick as it goes in," he said. "I was scared."

He also called the City of Charlottetown, which he said eventually brought in a backhoe to dig out the blocked ditches.

"There's a lot of rain coming down. I can just imagine all the other people out there that are having troubles with water too," said Jardine.

'Nothing major' on highways

Darren Chaisson, director of highway maintenance, said the Department of Transportation also had to deal with ditches and culverts that were "overwhelmed" and filled with water.

Other than that, he said there was "nothing major" on the roads.

"We were expecting a lot more," he said.

Crews dealt with freezing rain overnight, he said but were able to get roads clear by morning.

"As the temperatures started to rise, we were able to get out there, get [the roads] sanded, get them bared off, and by the time the sun came up we were dealing with slush and the heavy rains," he said.

Slow down, say police

Police are asking drivers to slow down, and plan more time to get to their destinations, to account for the water on the roads.

"It's winter in P.E.I.," said Sgt. Leanne Butler with RCMP. "Any day this time of year people should adjust for what conditions they are encountering."

"We all know that the weather in P.E.I. switches hourly," she said. "It starts to turn to freezing rain again or the roads become slushy again, that is the time people have to say, 'OK, I could encounter some ice.'"

Those icy conditions could turn up tonight, and early tomorrow morning, said CBC meteorologist Kalin Mitchell, with light rain, drizzle, and fog expected for this evening and tonight and lows of around 0 degrees near daybreak.

As for tomorrow, expect it to be "cloudy with sunny breaks tomorrow morning and afternoon before another round of rain and showers Thursday evening and night," he said.

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