Fiona wreaks havoc in Atlantic Canada

As towns in Cape Breton and on Newfoundland’s southern coast declared states of emergency on Saturday, Fiona — one of the strongest storms to ever strike Eastern Canada — continued to rage.

A view from the Wreckhouse Press office in Port aux Basques, N.L., as Fiona lashes Atlantic Canada.

HALIFAX—As Newfoundlanders went into Saturday evening being battered by the passing post-tropical storm Fiona, the other Atlantic Provinces began the long task of cleaning up in its wake.

From its initial approach some 200 kilometres east of Halifax, through its landfall in Cape Breton in the early hours of Saturday to its side-swipe just west of the southwestern corner of Newfoundland, Fiona tore a swath as it went, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands, uprooting trees and downing utility poles and, in some cases washing entire homes into the sea.

In its wake, hundreds of thousands were left in darkened homes. Some had to seek alternate shelter after their homes were damaged or destroyed.

Police in Newfoundland and Labrador said two people were swept out of residences that buckled to Fiona’s record-breaking storm surge and collapsed into the sea.

One of the women was rescued by local residents in Port aux Basques, N.L. and is believed to be fine after receiving medical attention, said RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Jolene Garland.

The other was reportedly not as fortunate and police have been unable to verify her status.

“We have a report about another woman who was believed to be swept out into the ocean as her residence was damaged as well — apparently swept out from the basement,” Garland said. “We haven’t been able to verify a status on that woman.”

A house is submerged on Mouse Island in Port-aux-Basques as Fiona lashes Atlantic Canada.

She said storm conditions are too dangerous to conduct a search.

Todd Ingram, a resident of Port aux Basques, said the storm is the worst he’s seen in his lifetime. The town was in a state of emergency by Saturday morning.

“It’s like a bad movie,” said the 40-year-old who lives in the community of Grand Bay East. His area was relatively sheltered from the storm, he said, compared to the downtown areas closer to the shoreline.

He remained in his home with his family, with the power flicking on and off, watching videos and images online of houses being stripped from their foundations as Fiona struck.

Ingram said Port aux Basques is a small town where everyone knows each other. One of his friends closer to the downtown area had to evacuate after all his tool sheds washed away.

“They can’t go back in because they’re on the verge of losing their house as well,” Ingram said. “They’re pretty shaken up … Right now they’re just with their clothes on their backs.”

As towns in Cape Breton and on Newfoundland’s southern coast declared states of emergency on Saturday, Fiona — one of the strongest storms to ever strike Eastern Canada — continued to rage.

Rene Roy, editor of the weekly newspaper in Port aux Basques, N.L., told The Canadian Press he saw evidence that nine homes, including a two-storey apartment building, were washed out to sea by a massive storm surge and wind-driven waves that soared about 25 metres into the air.

“Lower Water St. is devastated with damage,” said Roy. “There are homes gone. There are homes in the street … The RCMP are actively investigating whether people have been swept away.”

This Sept. 24, 2022, image courtesy of Michael King, special advisor to Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey, and his family, shows damaged caused by post-tropical storm Fiona on the Burnt Islands, in the Newfoundland and Labrador Province of Canada. Fiona knocked out power to more than 500,000 households as it lashed eastern Canada with strong winds and heavy rain on Saturday, electricity providers said. In the province of Nova Scotia alone, at least 400,000 households lost electricity after Fiona, downgraded from a hurricane to a post-tropical storm but still packing winds of 137 kilometres per hour, made landfall, Nova Scotia Power reported.

In the nearby community of Burgeo, N.L., 115 kilometres east with just 1,200 residents, Steven Hiscock had been watching the roof of a fish meal processing plant tremble in the ferocious wind.

“It’s only a matter time before the plant roof comes off, I think,” said Hiscock, program director of the Burgeo Broadcasting System, who spent the day filming the devastation and sharing the videos on Facebook.

In his videos, a storage shed filled with Christmas decorations, firewood and other belongings is swallowed by the water. The bottom half of someone’s house is gone and the rest is waiting to collapse. A rock thrown from the waves crashed into a nearby home.

A bridge he visited earlier in the day is simply no longer there.

And the wind is still gusting.

“This is most destruction I’ve ever seen from a storm,” he said. “It’s the first time in my lifetime I’ve seen a home destroyed.”

Pedestrians survey the damage in Sydney, N.S. as post tropical storm Fiona continues to batter the Maritimes on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022.

Fiona was churning out hurricane-force winds at about 150 kilometres per hour when it made landfall around 4 a.m. in eastern Nova Scotia, between Canso and Guysborough.

While the storm displaced many from their homes in Port aux Basques, community members came together to offer support to loved ones and strangers alike. Local Lions Clubs were offering temporary warm-up shelters and refreshments, donated by local businesses, to people evacuated from their homes.

At one location on Grand Bay Road, Lions Club president John Osmond said there were as many as 100 people seeking shelter at a time on Saturday, before some connected with family and friends or were transferred to other locations. Some locals volunteered to house evacuees within their own homes, he said.

His Lions Club planned to offer overnight shelter to those remaining, including residents with medical conditions and those who have difficulty travelling. The group was co-ordinating with the Red Cross to arrange medication for those who left them in their homes.

Residents were “very resilient … making the best of a bad situation,” said Osmond. “I’m just really impressed by how quickly everyone came together.”

The Canadian Hurricane Centre in Dartmouth, N.S., said Fiona set an unofficial record for the lowest-ever barometric pressure for a tropical storm making landfall in Canada. The recorded pressure at Hart Island was 931.6 millibars.

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

Police block lanes of traffic as both Halifax harbour bridges were closed in Dartmouth, N.S. on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022. Post-tropical storm Fiona hit Nova Scotia in the early hours, knocking out power and disrupting travel across the region.

As of 11 a.m. local time on Saturday, Nova Scotia Power was reporting 406,000 customers were in the dark — almost 80 per cent of the homes and businesses it serves.

“The wind gusts were really scary,” said Sunny Jamwal in Halifax. “You could hear the windows literally shaking.” Walking by the boardwalk at Halifax Harbour, he saw a boat still docked and in one piece. Along with long lineups at the few open coffee shops, he saw a tree wrenched up from its roots and fallen branches and signs.

Halifax Stanfield International Airport reported a gust of 109 km/h at 3 a.m., and a gust hit 135 km/h at the mouth of Halifax Harbour. As well, a gust reached 161 km/h over Beaver Island, N.S., which is along the province’s eastern shore.

In Sydney, 127 kilometres northeast of Fiona’s landfall, gusts hit 141 km/h at 3 a.m. local time, causing severe damage to some homes.

“We’ve had several structural failures,” said Christina Lamey, a spokeswoman for the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, adding no one was hurt. She said it was unclear how many homes had been damaged, but there were reports of collapsed walls and missing roofs.

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

Arlene and Robert Grafilo fled to Centre 200 with their children after a massive tree fell on their duplex apartment, trapping them in their basement unit.

“We heard a lot of noise outside and then we realized that there are a lot of cracks in the house, and we looked outside and saw the tree had fallen,” said Arlene Grafilo, 43, as her children — ages three and 10 — played in a waiting area set up by the Red Cross.

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

Waves pound the shore in Eastern Passage, N.S. on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022. Post-tropical storm Fiona hit Nova Scotia in the early hours, knocking out power and disrupting travel across the region.

In coastal areas on both sides of Halifax, houses creaked and shook overnight as Fiona unleashed hurricane-force winds.

In coastal Cow Bay, N.S., southeast of Halifax, Caralee McDaniel said the nearby Atlantic Ocean was “just wild.”

“We’re watching the wild waves crashing,” she said in an interview from her friend’s home, which lost power around 11:30 p.m. Friday.

“(Last night), you could see the windows flexing … There was a lot of creaking and howling winds … At times, we were wondering if the wind was going to blow the windows in.”

Greg Smith, program director of Newfoundland and Labrador AM radio and news outlet VOCM, noted that Port aux Basques mayor Brian Button said it best: “The sea is taking back the land.”

Youth hostel Paradis Bleu is surrounded by high water caused by post-tropical storm Fiona is shown on the Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Que., Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022. Coastal flooding remains a threat for parts of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island including the Northumberland Strait, the Gulf of St. Lawrence region including Îles-de-la-Madeleine and eastern New Brunswick, southwest Newfoundland, the St. Lawrence Estuary and the Quebec Lower North Shore.

The shocking images and video can’t do the magnitude of the storm and the devastation justice, he said, and there will be much to rebuild.

Michael King was just back in his hometown of Burnt Islands, N.L. last month for a Come Home Year celebration. Now his mother has evacuated, the family’s shed has been swept away and the tight-knit community is reeling under a state of emergency.

“The waves are just taking the homes off the foundations and destroying them in seconds. It is unbelievable,” he said.

The town has been torn apart by the storm, but only physically, he said. “The people are very connected. We are tough and we will get through this.”

By mid-morning, the worst of Fiona had passed eastern Nova Scotia — though the wind was still strong enough to suck the breath from one’s lungs — and, with more than 350,000 people without power, the mop-up began.

Empty shelves are seen in a grocery store as shoppers stock up on food in advance of Hurricane Fiona making landfall in Halifax on Friday, Sept. 23, 2022.

In Halifax, residential streets branching off of Quinpool — one of the city’s main streets — had sidewalks lined with fallen and broken branches. Uprooted trees leaned on power lines that N.S. Power had not yet had time to repair. One such tree also crushed a car in the home’s driveway.

The province’s Emergency Management Office said the cleanup would be measured in weeks rather than days.

By Saturday evening, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the federal government had approved Nova Scotia’s request for federal assistance and would deploy the Canadian Armed Forces to assist in recovery from Fiona’s fury.

He cancelled a scheduled visit to Japan for the state funeral of former prime minister Shinzo Abe to instead focus on supporting those impacted by the storm, he said. The federal government will also match any donations to the Red Cross over the next 30 days, he added. Trudeau said he will visit as soon as possible, while noting he doesn’t want to displace any emergency teams focused on important work on the ground.

Defence Minister Anita Anand said reconnaissance is underway to ensure troops are deployed where and when they are needed most, adding they will help with tree and debris removal, restoration of transportation links and more.

Fiona was on track to cross the Gulf of St. Lawrence and hit eastern Quebec and southeastern Labrador. It’s projected to diminish by Sunday afternoon or evening.

Correction — Sept. 25, 2022: This article has been updated with the correct name of VOCM news outlet in Newfoundland and Labrador.

— With files from The Canadian Press, Michael MacDonald in Halifax, Hina Alam in Charlottetown and Sidhartha Banerjee in Montreal

Steve McKinley is a Halifax-based reporter for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @smckinley1

Alyshah Hasham is a Toronto-based reporter covering crime and court for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @alysanmati

SteveMcKinley is a Halifax-based reporter for the Star. Follow himon Twitter: @smckinley1.

AlyshahHasham is a Toronto-based reporter covering city hall andmunicipal politics for the Star. Reach her via email: [email protected] or follow her onTwitter: @alysanmati.

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