The mother of a young boy killed during flash flooding last year in West Hants has launched a lawsuit against the province.
It was filed in Kentville court on July 17 and claims negligence led to her son Colton’s death.
In the document, Tera Sisco alleges the government did not send out an emergency alert fast enough.
The allegations also suggest the West Hants municipality was too slow to give the province necessary information to send the alert.
The morning of July 22, the fire chief in Brooklyn, N.S., requested an emergency alert to warn people of flood risks at 1:12 a.m., and the RCMP requested one a short time after, at 1:24 a.m., the lawsuit says.
The alert was sent out more than an hour later at 3:06 a.m.
The lawsuit claims this was not within a “reasonable timeframe,” and that the province “failed to implement appropriate policies and procedures” to request and send out emergency alerts.
Six-year-old Colton drowned on July 22, 2023, when he, his father and some others tried to flee a flooded apartment in a truck around 2:30 a.m. The truck was swept away in floodwater and then submerged. Colton was unable to escape and his body was found a few days later.
The flood also claimed the life of a child, Natalie Harnis, along with 14-year-old Terri-Lynn Keddy and 52-year-old Nicholas Holland.
None of these allegations against the municipality or the province have been proven in court.
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