Joseph Wilkinson, Jessica Schladebeck
New York Daily News
(TNS)
Fiona lashed Canada’s Atlantic coast with fierce winds and torrential rainfall Saturday, washing homes and businesses into the sea and knocking out power for hundreds of thousands as it made landfall as a post-tropical cyclone.
The destructive storm system slammed into Nova Scotia before dawn with wind speeds near 85 mph and peak gusts of over 100 mph. Despite downgrading overnight from a massive Category 4 hurricane, meteorologists warned that Fiona will likely still bring hurricane-strength gusts, fierce rains and huge waves to the Canadian coastline.
“Just an incredibly strong storm as it made landfall. And even as it moves away it is continuing to affect the region for several more hours today,” said Ian Hubbard, meteorologist for the Canadian Hurricane Centre in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
By mid-afternoon, Fiona was churning away about 105 miles west-northwest of Channel-Port aux Basques in Newfoundland, where an estimated dozen homes and business have been washed into the sea. At least one woman was pulled from the water shortly after her home collapsed while another remained missing after she was apparently swept out from her basement, said Jolene Garland, a spokeswoman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The town’s mayor, Brian Button, said Saturday afternoon that people were being evacuated to high ground as winds ripped across the region and toppled power lines. Channel-Port aux Basques was in a state of emergency as authorities work curb multiple electrical fires and residential flooding.
A local state of emergency was also issued in Sydney, Nova Scotia — the largest city on Cape Breton Island — amid widespread power outages, road closures and damage to homes in the area. Mayor of Cape Breton Regional Municipality, Amanda McDougall, said a shelter set up overnight has already been filled and that officials are looking to open more.
“There are homes that have been significantly damaged due to downed trees, big old trees falling down and causing significant damage,” McDougall said. “We’re also seeing houses that their roofs have completely torn off, windows breaking in. There is a huge amount of debris in the roadways.”
“There is a lot of damage to belongings and structures but no injuries to people as of this point. Again we’re still in the midst of this,” she continued. “It’s still terrifying. I’m just sitting here in my living room and it feels like the patio doors are going to break in with those big gusts. It’s loud and it is shocking.”
More than 400,000 Nova Scotia Power customers — about 80% of the province of almost 1 million — were affected by outages Saturday, according to Nova Scotia power.
“We are seeing significant impacts from the storm including uprooted trees, broken poles and downed power lines across the province,” the utility company said.
Another 82,000 customers in the province of Prince Edward Island were also left in the dark, while NB Power in New Brunswick reported 44,000 were without electricity.
Federal Minister of Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair said there is very extensive damage at the airport in Sydney, Nova Scotia and at other airports including Halifax and Nova’s Scotia’s largest airport. He added that the Canadian Armed Forces are likely to assist in the recovery, particularly when it comes to relocating people, assisting with shelters and the removal of debris where needed.
“They are moving now,” Blair said. “The damage is very extensive. We’ve seen homes, community centers, apartment buildings, roadways, bridges have all been impacted.”
With a barometric pressure of 931.6 mb, it is the lowest pressured land-falling storm on record in Canada, according to the Canadian Hurricane Center, which previously described the storm as a “historic” and “landmark weather event.” Between its size, winds and rain, forecasters have said that Fiona could be one of the biggest oceanic storms to ever strike the nation.
The fast-moving Fiona is predicted to move quickly across Canada’s maritime provinces until Sunday, at which point Fiona is expected to meet with a cold, slow-moving system. That collision could stall the storm’s movement and lead to flooding across the slowdown region.
The hurricane has already been blamed for five deaths in the Caribbean, which it tore through early this week. Two people died in Puerto Rico, two others in the Dominican Republic and one more on Guadeloupe.
With News Wire Services
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