As Hurricane Fiona left the Atlantic provinces on Saturday, residents of the region’s largest city came out of their homes to survey the damage.
While Halifax was spared the worst of Fiona’s fury, the storm left hundreds of thousands of people without power across the province, including more than 100,000 in the capital. Many roads were blocked by fallen trees, and pedestrians and electrical equipment were making their way under downed poles and lines that had been marked with grocery bags and plastic flower leis.
Transit services were suspended in the municipality, and for many residents, cell services were unavailable or unreliable.
“[Halifax Regional Municipality] it’s been hit hard, we’ve downed power lines, downed trees all over the township, obviously connectivity issues,” Halifax Mayor Mike Savage said at a Saturday afternoon briefing. “We are asking people to consider those who are in more difficult places than themselves.”
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At an evacuation center located in a Halifax sports center, several dozen people sat on the floor or at tables, their hands wrapped around cups of coffee and instant noodles.
Colin Tremills had arrived at the shelter at 4:30 in the morning; firefighters had woken him up in the middle of the night after wind blew up the chimney of his Dartmouth apartment building and slammed him into the structure. “It was terrifying,” he said. “We just grabbed what we could and got out as fast as we could.”
Tremills said it was a miracle no one was hurt; he had heard that his neighbors had been sitting at his table only a few minutes before the bricks from the fireplace had crashed through the ceiling at that spot. “He’s lucky to be alive,” Tremills said.
Still, the evacuated residents were fatigued and stressed. Firefighters had allowed people to return to the building to collect medication, but nothing more. As a result, she was in the shelter with few possessions and not knowing where she was going to stay anytime soon. He hoped that the owner would provide temporary housing, but he was concerned about what would happen if the building was deemed defective. “Everyone is concerned that there is a housing shortage in Halifax,” he said. “People are looking to pay more [in rent]– and that is if you can find an apartment.”
Fallen trees were also a major source of damage throughout the city. On a main street in Halifax, Sergei Shirokov stood on the sidewalk talking to a neighbor, a saw in one hand and scissors in the other. His fence had collapsed overnight and broken branches littered the sidewalk, but he considered himself lucky; the great branch of the tree that he hung over his house had not fallen. “So far so good,” he said.
Other neighbors were not so lucky; a few houses away, a large tree had been uprooted and felled, crushing a pickup truck. Trees and tree branches had also fallen on houses throughout the neighborhood, including the house next to Shirokov’s; the neighborhood was filled with the sound of generators and chainsaws.
Shirokov’s neighbor Steve said the extent of the damage in his neighborhood seemed similar to that caused by Hurricane Juan in 2003, but added that for many, the extent was not the primary concern.
“For poor people who are unlucky, it doesn’t matter if it was the only tree in the whole city that fell, if it fell on their roof, it’s a problem.”
On a Halifax street blocked by cables and fallen trees, Maeve Boyne and her family stopped; they had just gone down to check on a boat that had been moored off Halifax’s Northwest Arm (their boat was fine, but they saw at least one other boat that had been washed ashore). Her arms were full of hydrangeas; they had been flying down the street like tumbleweeds, Boyne said.
At the Saturday afternoon briefing, officials said Fiona had turned out to be as damaging as projected and that, for Boyne, she had woken up as badly damaged as he feared. “People kept telling me, oh, it’s not going to be that bad, and I was like, I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to hit Nova Scotia quite a bit.”
On Saturday, the recovery from that blow was just beginning; Officials told Nova Scotians that given the severity of the storm, assessing the damage and restoring power could take days. The province had requested federal disaster assistance and support from the military to help with the short- and long-term response.
Mindful of the fact that other regions have not been as lucky as Halifax, Mayor Mike Savage said the city was also prepared to offer assistance.
“We had a hard time, it was a wild night in Halifax,” he said. “But when I see the images from Port aux Basques, Cape Breton, PEI, I just want to say our hearts go out to you and anything we can do to help, we will.”