Cooke, Irving plan subdivision for flood victims

Two large companies in Charlotte County are teaming upon aproposal to build a subdivision in St. George to helpfamilies left homeless by the Decemberfloods.

A report by Cooke Aquaculture, J.D. Irving Ltd. and the Town of St. George will gobefore town council on Monday night.

Glenn Cooke, the chief executive officer of Cooke Aquaculture, has seen first-hand the 21 homes in St. George that are now uninhabitable.

"There are houses destroyed and they're living in a hotel room and having no home is a pretty ugly situation," Cooke said.

Cooke Aquaculture was in the middle of the flood-relief response in December, offering the company's boats and staff to get people out of their flooded homes.

Now, Cooke said, his company has teamed up with J.D. Irving to build momentum for a new subdivision of modular or mini-homes for those 21 families.

Cooke said it's a $2-million undertaking, with the costand groundwork split between the two companies, the provincial government and other fundraising efforts.

If the project is approved by the local council, Cooke said, construction could start this week.

Several southern New Brunswick communities were hit with severe damage in mid-December after a series of flash floods were caused by days of heavy rain.

New Brunswick witnessed three powerful storms in December that caused more than $50 million worth of damage to homes and property.

Collective effort

St. George Mayor Sharon Tucker said the proposal for building a new subdivision for flood victims shows how the town has rallied together after the December storm.

"It's again, people stepping up and helping how they're able," Tucker said.

"Large corporate partners are able to step up in one way, smaller people, business are able to assist in other ways, neighbours are able to assist neighbours."

Liberal MLA Rick Doucet, who represents the area, said he supports the proposal.

"If we do it as a collective group, we might be able to keep the costs down and be able to put it together quite efficiently and quite quickly," Doucet said.