Scores of people laughed off police warnings as they flocked to Nova Scotia’s shores to watch the waves yesterday during hurricane Bill.
However, authorities weren’t making it easy for the wave watchers, closing down Lawrencetown Road after police decided the surf crashing onto the coast was too dangerous.
Alissa Cox and Greg Spears were two of the many people who then moved over to nearby Conrad’s Beach in Lawrencetown to keep close to the ocean.
“This is insane. It’s never been like this. Usually it’s so calm here, but the waves are just crazy,” Cox said during the height of the storm.
As far as hurricanes go, Bill may have been a bust across the Halifax Regional Municipality, doling out little structural damage. But on the shorelines the wind and rain was powerful enough to keep people from stepping outside.
“(The rain) hurt my skin, it was that hard. I had to turn around and come back,” said Amy Hemlow, one of several people who didn’t even make it from her car to Conrad’s Beach.
“I only made it as far as the boardwalk and it felt like hail,” added her friend, William Faulkner.
Those who did make it out didn’t seem disappointed. Waves reportedly reached as high as the lighthouse at Peggy’s Cove, but before long police cleared people away from that area as well.
During the height of the storm police scanners were buzzing with reports of officers shooing people away from the water.
“We never get stuff like this. That’s why I came out here even though they warned us,” Hemlow said. “I want to see what everybody else is seeing because it doesn’t happen often.”
