Fiona hit Canada’s Atlantic coast, wiping out homes and knocking out power to thousands

It was centered about 80 miles northwest of the coastal town of Channel-Port aux Basques in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the storm left a trail of destruction. Pictures from the province on Saturday morning showed some beach houses in the area collapsed and several floating structures falling into the sea or surrounded by floodwaters.

Houses flooded in Channel-Port aux Basques, Mayor Brian Button he said in a Facebook video on Saturday morning. Dangerous storm surges – ocean water coming ashore with “large and destructive waves” – were expected in parts of Atlantic Canada, forecasters said Saturday.

Rene Roy, Editor-in-Chief Wreckhouse Pressa local news outlet described the scene of carnage in the storm: uprooted trees, at least eight nearby homes destroyed by the storm surge, floating cabins, and a boat swept into the middle of a local playground by floodwaters.

“I lived through Hurricane Juan and it was a foggy day compared to this monster,” Roy, 50, told CNN. Hurricane Juan In 2003, it hit the Canadian coast as a Category 2 storm, downing power lines and trees and causing extensive damage. “It’s surreal what’s happening here,” Roy said.

Roy told CNN that he was evacuated from his home and stayed with his cousin on higher ground. He doesn’t know if his house is still standing, and emergency workers have stopped him from driving to check. It was dangerous to do so, they warned.

Photos by another area resident, Terry Osmond a A destroyed building in Canal-Port aux Basques is surrounded by seawater on the shoreline, with splintered wood and other debris scattered across the city.

Osmond, 62, wrote to CNN: “Never in my life has there been so much devastation in our area.”

A city woman was rescued from water after her home collapsed Saturday afternoon, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said. He was taken to the hospital; The extent of his injuries was not immediately known, police said.

In the coastal Newfoundland community of Burnt Isles, about a 30-minute drive to the east, several buildings were destroyed. Video posted on Facebook by Pius Scott showed. Houses or part of them were destroyed, debris was scattered on the ground and in the sea water.

Water surrounds a collapsed house in Channel-Port aux Basques, Newfoundland on Saturday.

The devastation is “breathtaking,” says the mayor

Meanwhile, power outages were reported late Saturday for nearly half a million utility customers in Atlantic Canada, including more than 339,000 in Nova Scotia and more than 84,000 in Prince Edward Island. poweroutage.com.

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston described the “shocking” damage in the province, including roads washed out and communities littered with downed trees and power lines, at a news conference Saturday, and said restoring power was among officials’ top priorities.

Peter Gregg, president and CEO of Nova Scotia Power, said the weather is still too severe in many areas for crews to begin assessing the damage and making repairs. More than 900 electrical engineers are on their way to the area, but with parts of the state still experiencing storm conditions, Gregg added, some customers could be without power for several days.

A worker clears fallen trees and downed power lines on September 24, 2022 in Halifax.

The storm made landfall as a strong post-tropical cyclone in eastern Nova Scotia between Canso and Guysborough in the early hours of Saturday morning and crossed the province’s Cape Breton Island. Authorities in the Cape Breton region have declared a state of emergency and asked people to take shelter in place.

Cape Breton Regional Municipality he wrote Twitter reported Saturday afternoon that telecommunications systems were making it difficult for officials to receive emergency information about residents staying in shelters and not traveling.

“More than 70 roads are closed and there is danger,” he warned.

The roof of an apartment complex in Nova Scotia’s capital city of Halifax, west of the mainland, collapsed, forcing about 100 people to evacuate, Mayor Mike Savage told CNN on Saturday.

“The scale of this storm has been breathtaking,” Savage said at a news conference Saturday. “Everything turned out to be predicted.”

Halifax officials said Saturday afternoon that strong winds and the risk of coastal flooding remained for the rest of the day, urging residents to stay off the roads while cleanup efforts took place.

Police in Charlottetown, the capital of Prince Edward Island he tweeted photos of the damage, including the collapsed ceiling of one house.

“The conditions are unlike anything we’ve ever seen,” Charlottetown police tweeted Saturday morning.

Georgina Scott surveys the damage on her street in Halifax on Saturday, September. 24, 2022.

What can happen next?

On the forecast track, the center of Fiona was expected to move over Labrador and the Labrador Sea, the center of the hurricane, on Saturday and Sunday. he said.

The center added that large swells caused by Fiona, which could create “life-threatening surf and current conditions,” affected Atlantic Canada, the northeast coast of the United States and Bermuda.

A fallen tree is seen on the road as Fiona hits Prince Edward Island on Saturday.

Gale and gale-force winds are expected to continue to lash parts of Atlantic Canada into early Sunday, the center said.

Saturday morning, hurricane force winds In parts of Maritime Canada, gusts were reported to generally range from 70 to 95 mph (110 to 150 km/h). According to Environment Canada, the highest morning wind gust was 111 mph (179 km/h) in Arisaig, Nova Scotia.

Forecasters are predicting up to 10 inches of rain in some places and significant flooding he said.

The storm has already killed at least five people and knocked out power to millions Wrecked islands in the Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean earlier this week.

Workers lift a fallen wire to allow vehicles to access fallen trees in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Saturday.

Fiona has been Category 4 The storm moved over the Atlantic Ocean after crossing the Turks and Caicos Islands on Wednesday and only weakened as it approached Canada on Friday afternoon. it happened post-tropical before landfall, meaning that instead of a warm core, the storm now had a cold core. This does not affect the storm’s ability to produce strong winds, rain, and storm surge, but simply indicates that the internal mechanics of the storm have changed.

Fiona had potential It’s the Canadian version Superstorm Sandy, Chris Fogarty, Canadian Hurricane Center manager, said before Fiona hit. In 2012, Sandy affected 24 states and the entire east coast, causing an estimated $78.7 billion in damage.

Saturday’s unofficial barometric pressure was recorded at 931.6 mb At Hart Island, this would make Fiona the lowest-pressure storm on record in Canada, according to the Canadian Hurricane Centre.

CNN’s Allison Chinchar, Hannah Sarisohn, Sharif Paget, Derek Van Dam, Haley Brink, Aya Elamroussi, Taylor Ward, Theresa Waldrop and Tina Burnside contributed to this report.