Sewage backed up into Alisha Nicholson's Lower Sackville home after heavy rain Tuesday. CBCTuesday's thunder and lightning rain storm brought more than 60 milimetres of water to Halifax Regional Municipality, flooded some local homes and businesses and forced some beaches to close.

Alisha Nicholson lives in Lower Sackville with her husband, their three-year-old son and their two dogs.

On Tuesday night they watched in horror as their backyard filled with water, then their basement filled with sewage.

"Gurgling, gurgling and lots of gurgling. It's the sound from a drain actually draining — except everything was pouring into the house."

The Nicholsons lost power, like some 14,000 people across the province at the height of the storm.

They took turns caring for their son while the other ventured into the basement with boots and a flashlight.

"It was basically a rush to get things that we thought like pictures, and family photo albums and tools up off the floor to save any sort of electronics as well," said Nicholson.

Several homes on Nicholson's street were flooded, her neighbour had 40 centimetres of sewage and water in her home.

They're all waiting for insurance adjusters to assess the damage.

Water also rushed through a large culvert under the Bedford Highway.

It poured over the railroad tracks, filled the culvert beneath Shore Drive and ate away at the gravel. Work crews spent the day repairing the damage.

Headache for Boneheads

Boneheads BBQ Smokehouse in downtown Halifax had to throw away all of the meat in their fridge after the power was out for nine hours. Boneheads BBQ Smokehouse owner Cindy Wheatley spent the day tallying up her losses: everything that was in the fridge when the power went out for nine hours.

"All of our meats. Everything's fresh. So we have all of our pork butts, we had brisket — hundreds of pounds, ribs, just racks and racks of ribs, all of our chicken," said Wheatley.

It's now all in the trash.

Wheatley was scrambling Wednesday for emergency supplies so her restaurant could reopen Thursday.

She said she would've appreciated a little more notice from Nova Scotia Power about when the lights would come back on.

"They were predicting two o'clock. At two o'clock, they changed it to five. So maybe if I had had an hour or two warning prior to that, then maybe I could've done something a little bit more.

Halifax beaches close

Black Rock Beach in Point Pleasant Park and the Dingle Beach in Fleming Park were closed temporarily to swimmers as a precautionary measure after heavy rain overnight, the Halifax Regional Municipality said Wednesday.

Heavy rains caused the overflow of screened wastewater into the harbour. Excess flows are screened through the combined sewer overflow chambers to remove floatables, and then discharged into the harbour.

Lifeguards will be on duty to advise the public that the beaches are closed.

Testing is being done to determine if the water is safe for swimming, and beaches will reopen as soon as the tests indicate that the water is safe for swimming, the municipality said in a release.