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Carleton County has suffered many different floods over the years, but those floods do not compare to the flood of 2008, according to local residents. People have gone as far as to say this is the worst flood they have ever seen.

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FILE PHOTO

The flood of 1973 nearly destroyed the Woodstock downtown bridge, which it did to the nearby train bridge.

But size isn't what matters when it comes to floods, its the damage and devastation that floods leave behind.

Roland Perry, a local historian in Hartland, said he has lived along the Saint John River all of his life and has never seen a flood quite like this one. But Perry recalls another flood that affected his life long ago.

"In the 1960s, Mr. and Mrs. Howard Kennedy lived at the lower end of Main Street in Hartland. The water had flooded into their house. Me and a few others had went down to help them move their furniture upstairs and by the time we were done we had to be removed from the house by boats because the water had risen so high."

Dawn Lockwood, a local historian in Woodstock, said there were all kinds of floods in the area before the dams were built in Beechwood and Mactaquac.

"Sucker Flats (along Lower Main Street in Woodstock) flooded every year, and the kids who lived in that area sometimes had to come to school in boats," Lockwood recalled.

She said there were only two or three major floods after the dams were built.

"During one of those floods the main bridge (in Woodstock) at the time actually went out."

Deanna Bradley, the former editor in chief of the Bugle, said the flood in 1976 destroyed one section of the CPR train bridge in Woodstock.

"In Bath there was a fatal train wreck due to wash outs on the rail lines. The brake man of the train, Graydon Sisson and another unknown man were both killed during the train wreck."

Rod Hawkins, a Woodstock resident, said there is a "rumor" railroad cars are still at the bottom of the Saint John River from when the Woodstock CPR train bridge broke.

Bradley said she also recalls a flood that happened in 1993.

"The flooding did $15,000 of damage to the Town of Woodstock.

"The flood was caused because of the spring run-off and ice jams in the Meduxnekeag and Saint John rivers. The water was caused to back up and it flooded downtown parking lots and facilities."

Bradley said the water was eight feet above the normal level.

"The mayor of Woodstock, Clara Moffatt, was away at an Emergency Preparedness Conference in Ontario during the start of the flood."

John Thompson, owner of RV Thompson Insurance Ltd., said there is a mark on the wall in the basement of the Woodstock business's downtown building where the water from the flood in the 1970s came in.

Debbie Bustard, a Woodstock resident, said she recalls a flood in 1975 because the home she lived in below Stewart & Stewart Home Hardware was half under water.

The biggest flood Woodstock's Wallace Hale can remember in the area is "the great flood" of 1923.

"I used to live in Grafton, and before the Mactaquac Dam was built, the road would get flooded above and below our house, leaving people stranded for days. You had to go through Hartland just to get to Woodstock."

Floods over the years have been devastating, but the people of Carleton County have always managed to overcome them, just as they are likely to overcome the flood of 2008.