N.S. oceanside hamlet bands together to protect itself from climate change

Hope Shanks has seen more than her fair share of the effects of climate change.

At least once a year, the bookkeeper for the restaurant and shop in Halls Harbour, N.S., has to help clean up after water from the Bay of Fundy breaches the seawall, sweeps across the parking lot and floods the restaurant.

Most recently, on Christmas Eve, the Halls Harbour Lobster Pound was inundated with more than a metre of water.

"Our staff does a great job. You would not know that there was seaweed in here," Shanks says, looking around the restaurant one morning in mid-February.

Still, she hopes someday she won't have to deal with damage on a regular basis.

"It would be so nice next winter to not have to worry about whether or not the tide is going to wash us away."

That day may not come next winter — or even the following one — but it could be on its way.

Halls Harbour is a picturesque community that's a popular tourist draw, known for its tides that lift the fishing boats moored to the wharf at high tide and then lower them to the harbour floor at low tide. 

Visitors must navigate a steep descent into the heart of the community, then a hairpin turn in the road that leads to a rocky beach and a few businesses.

But the proximity to the water that appeals to residents and visitors is also what threatens the community.

The seawall, made of huge boulders and concrete blocks, isn't enough to hold in powerful storm surges. Those enormous rocks, meant to protect the harbour and the buildings, sometimes get washed right into the harbour, preventing boats from getting in and out. 

An old sluiceway that for decades has controlled the flow of water under the road is no longer up to the tasks Mother Nature now throws at it. The main road sometimes floods during storms, and erosion has started to eat away at the supports underneath.

"A major storm, it's like Niagara Falls over there," says Madonna Spinazola, president of the Halls Harbour Community Development Association. "We've seen storm damage that we've had to repair every single year. Lately, since Juan and Dorian … we're seeing them not only every year, but two or three times a year."

The community development association has devised a plan to help protect Halls Harbour from the stronger storms and sea level rise caused by climate change.