Military to be deployed to Nova Scotia to aid recovery after Fiona hits region

SYDNEY, NS – Post-Tropical Storm Fiona, one of the strongest storms to hit eastern Canada, left a trail of destruction in its wake early Saturday before stalling in western Newfoundland, where a record storm surge destroyed several houses.

The devastation sent local officials scrambling amid widespread power outages and washed-out roads, while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the federal government would deploy members of the Canadian Armed Forces at Nova Scotia’s request and would do the same with other provinces that request it. aid.

Police said they had received reports of two people in Port aux Basques, NL being dragged out of residences that collapsed into the sea when Fiona struck. RCMP Cpl. Jolene Garland said a woman was rescued by local residents and is believed to be fine after receiving medical attention.

“We have a report on another woman who was believed to have been washed into the ocean as her residence was also damaged, apparently being washed from the basement,” Garland said. “We have not been able to verify the status of that woman.”

She said stormy conditions on Saturday made it too dangerous for searchers to try to find the woman.

Fiona was centered over the eastern Gulf of St. Lawrence on Saturday night and was expected to track northeast, reaching the lower north coast of Quebec and southeastern Labrador overnight. High winds, large waves, and storm surge continued in parts of eastern Nova Scotia, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and western Newfoundland.

Towns in Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton and on Newfoundland’s southwestern coast declared states of emergency early Saturday as Fiona lashed the region.

Trudeau canceled his planned visit to Japan for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s state funeral to focus instead on supporting Canadians affected by the storm, he said.

The federal government will match any donations to the Canadian Red Cross from individuals and corporations over the next 30 days, it added.

Trudeau also said he would visit as soon as possible, although he said he doesn’t want to displace any emergency teams that are focused on important work on the ground.

“The recovery is going to be a great effort. We will be there every step of the way,” Trudeau said.

Defense Minister Anita Anand said the military began preparing to respond before receiving Nova Scotia’s request for assistance.

He did not say how many troops would be deployed, but said reconnaissance is underway to ensure they go where and when they are needed most. They will help with tree and debris removal, restoration of transportation links and more, he added.

Although some storm-related winds were expected to persist overnight in parts of Newfoundland, the coastal community of Port aux Basques felt the effects of Fiona early.

René Roy, editor of the city’s weekly newspaper, said he saw evidence that nine houses, including a two-story apartment building, were swept out to sea by a huge storm surge and wind-driven waves that rose about 25 meters. in the air.

“There are missing houses. There are houses on the street,” said Roy.

Port aux Basques Mayor Brian Button asked residents not to wander and urged those at risk to seek higher ground, noting that some homes had already been razed.

“So anyone who is told to leave their homes, they need to leave,” Button said during a Facebook Live broadcast. “There are no ifs, ands or buts.”

Later on Saturday, he warned against returning home and advised seeking shelter in a primary school amid forecasts of new storm surge.

“We have a total war zone out there, we have destruction everywhere,” he said.

Fiona was producing hurricane-force winds of about 150 kilometers per hour when it made landfall between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. in eastern Nova Scotia between Canso and Guysborough. The severe storm knocked out power to more than 500,000 homes and businesses in the Maritimes.

The Canadian Hurricane Center in Dartmouth, NS, said Fiona set an unofficial record for the lowest barometric pressure ever recorded for a tropical storm to make landfall in Canada. The pressure recorded at Hart Island was 931.6 millibars.

“The pressure of a storm is a very good indicator of its intensity: how strong and intense the winds are going to be,” said meteorologist Ian Hubbard. “The deeper the pressure, the more intense it will be.”

Bob Robichaud, a hurricane center warning preparedness meteorologist, said during a news conference that the hardest-hit areas of southwestern Newfoundland are in the path of the strongest winds at the edge of the storm.

“The same winds that passed through Cape Breton in the early hours of this morning are now passing through the Port aux Basques area. That, coupled with the fact that they’re wide open to incoming swell and storm surge, is why you’re seeing what you’re seeing out there now,” Robichaud said.

Other Nova Scotia officials described stunning impacts from the storm that brought flying debris, broken power poles and trees along roadways and knocked out power to three-quarters of provincial residents as of Saturday afternoon.

In Halifax, 160 people were evacuated from two apartment buildings that were heavily damaged, including one with a collapsed roof.

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said the province has requested military and disaster assistance from the federal government and support from Ontario through a mutual aid agreement. The province is working urgently to get power, telephone and internet services back up and running, he said.

Halifax Stanfield International Airport reported a gust of 109 km/h at 3 am and a gust of 135 km/h at the Halifax Harbor mouth. A gust also reached 100 mph over Beaver Island, NS, which is along the east coast of the province. In Sydney, NS, gusts reached 141 km/h at 3 am local time and caused severe damage to some homes.

“We’ve had a number of structural failures,” said Christina Lamey, a spokeswoman for the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, adding that no one was injured. She said it was not clear how many houses had been damaged, but there were reports of collapsed walls and missing roofs.

Several dozen people in Sydney have been forced to move into a shelter set up inside a downtown hockey arena.

Arlene and Robert Grafilo fled to the 200 Center with their children after a huge tree fell on their duplex apartment, trapping them in their basement.

“We heard a lot of noise outside and then we realized there were a lot of cracks in the house and we looked outside and saw that the tree had fallen down,” said Arlene Grafilo, 43, as her children, ages 3 and 10, played. . in a waiting room enabled by the Red Cross.

“We were trapped and couldn’t open the doors and windows, so we decided to call 911. The children were scared,” he said, adding that firefighters eventually rescued them.

Conditions were not much better on Prince Edward Island, where authorities recorded wind gusts of up to 110 km/h around 2:30 p.m. local time.

That was down from levels of up to 170 km/h recorded earlier in the day, and Prime Minister Dennis King said the island was also hit by two-meter storm surges, widespread flooding and downed power lines that left around 95 percent of provincial residents. in the dark.

King praised islanders for heeding warnings to stay indoors, noting that authorities have received no reports of injuries.

But while he said it’s still too early to fully gauge the extent of the damage on the island, he said early indications already make it clear that Fiona dealt an unprecedented blow.

“It seems that few communities, large or small, have been spared,” King said at an afternoon news conference.

In Charlottetown, where the city urged residents to stay off the streets, Fiona left a trail of debris, downed power lines and uprooted and splintered trees in her wake. Gasoline pumps were ripped from foundations, power lines twisted and fell, and mailboxes were blown away.

Lena Caseley, a Charlottetown resident who has been living in the Parkdale neighborhood since 1993, said she has never seen anything to compare with Fiona’s fury and destruction.

On Saturday afternoon, Caseley surveyed the damage on his street.

“It’s going to take a long time to recover from this,” he said.

Steve Clements, who spent the night at Jack Blanchard Hall, one of Charlottetown’s temporary shelters, said he was thankful to be “out of the elements.” He said it was loud and hard to sleep, but “it’s better than the alternative. It’s better than being outside.”

Meanwhile, parts of eastern Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island saw 75 to 150 millimeters of rain. Final totals have yet to be tallied.

This report from The Canadian Press was first published on September 24, 2022.

– With files from Michael MacDonald in Halifax, Hina Alam in Charlottetown, Sidhartha Banerjee in Montreal, and Amy Smart in Vancouver.