2008 Saint John River Flood

The 2008 Saint John River flood was considered the worst flooding of the Saint John River in 35 years. Flood levels reached 27 feet and 4 inches in Fredericton on May 1, almost reaching the previous record of 28 feet and 3 inches, set in 1973. Fifty streets in Fredericton area were closed as a result of the flooding. The flooding caused severe damage in areas of northern Maine and western New Brunswick.

By May 3, the Canadian Red Cross had registered 680 residents who had been forced to evacuate from their homes.


Famous quotes containing the words saint, john, river and/or flood:

    “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
    For he today that sheds his blood with me
    Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
    This day shall gentle his condition.
    And gentlemen in England now abed
    Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
    And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
    That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “In the years of the Roman Republic, before the Christian era, Roman education was meant to produce those character traits that would make the ideal family man. Children were taught primarily to be good to their families. To revere gods, one’s parents, and the laws of the state were the primary lessons for Roman boys. Cicero described the goal of their child rearing as “self- control, combined with dutiful affection to parents, and kindliness to kindred.””
    —C. John Sommerville (20th century)

    “I counted two and seventy stenches,
    All well defined and several stinks!
    Ye Nymphs that reign o’er sewers and sinks,
    The river Rhine, it is well known,
    Doth wash your city of Cologne;
    But tell me, Nymphs! what power divine
    Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine?”
    —Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)

    “It is not menstrual blood per se which disturbs the imagination—unstanchable as that red flood may be—but rather the albumen in the blood, the uterine shreds, placental jellyfish of the female sea. This is the chthonian matrix from which we rose. We have an evolutionary revulsion from slime, our site of biologic origins. Every month, it is woman’s fate to face the abyss of time and being, the abyss which is herself.”
    —Camille Paglia (b. 1947)