Fiona slams Canada’s Atlantic coast, killing homes and cutting off electricity to thousands

CNN
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Fiona Canada’s east coast is riven by hurricane force after it made landfall in Nova Scotia on Saturday, battering the region with gale force and gale force winds. stormsdrains the power of hundreds of thousands and washes or collapses some coastal homes.

Fiona, now a Post-Tropical Hurricane, maximum sustained winds of 75 mph – strength A Category 1 hurricane – Around 2 p.m. ET on Saturday, with its epicenter over the Gulf of St. Lawrence and heading toward eastern Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador, the US national hurricane center He said.

Pictures sent from the province on Saturday morning showed that some coastal homes collapsed, and a few collapsed buildings fell into the sea or were surrounded by flood waters in Newfoundland and Labrador.

In the province’s coastal town of Channel Port, “We already have homes… and things that have washed up,” Mayor Brian Patton He said In a Facebook video on Saturday morning. Forecasters were expecting a dangerous surge in storms – pushing ocean waters on land He said.

René Roy, Editor-in-Chief Wreckhouse Pressa local news publication, described the scene of carnage in the storm: trees were uprooted, at least eight nearby homes disappeared in the aftermath of a violent storm, and floating cabins and a boat carried by floodwaters in the middle of a local stadium.

“I experienced Hurricane Juan and it was a foggy day compared to this beast,” Roy, 50, told CNN. Hurricane Juan It hit the Canadian coast as a Category 2 storm in 2003, destroying power lines and trees and leaving extensive damage behind. “What’s happening here is surreal,” Roy added.

Roy told CNN that he left his home and stayed with his cousin on higher ground. He had no idea if his house was still standing, and emergency personnel prevented him from driving to check. They warned that it was not safe.

Pictures and colon Fiona criticizes the Atlantic coast of Canada

Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press/The Associated Press

The waves hit the shores of the East Passage, Nova Scotia, as Fiona made landfall on Saturday, September 24.

Pictures and colon Fiona criticizes the Atlantic coast of Canada

Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press/The Associated Press

A man removes limbs and debris from his street in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Saturday.

Pictures and colon Fiona criticizes the Atlantic coast of Canada

Greg Locke/Reuters

Residents stand in floodwaters after Fiona’s death on Saturday in Shediac, New Brunswick.

Pictures and colon Fiona criticizes the Atlantic coast of Canada

Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press/The Associated Press

Workers lift fallen wires to allow machines to reach fallen trees in Halifax on Saturday.

Pictures and colon Fiona criticizes the Atlantic coast of Canada

Eric Martin/Reuters

A sailboat lying on the beach on Saturday in Sherwater, Nova Scotia.

Pictures and colon Fiona criticizes the Atlantic coast of Canada

Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press/The Associated Press

Georgina Scott inspects the damage to her street in Halifax on Saturday.

Pictures and colon Fiona criticizes the Atlantic coast of Canada

Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press/The Associated Press

Restaurant tables are turned upside down in Halifax before Fiona on Friday, September 23.

Pictures and colon Fiona criticizes the Atlantic coast of Canada

Ingrid Bulmer/Reuters

Frances Prohm places sandbags around the doors of the Nova Scotia Power Building in Halifax on Friday.

Pictures and colon Fiona criticizes the Atlantic coast of Canada

Darren Calabrese/AFP

A pedestrian protects themselves with an umbrella as they walk along the Halifax waterfront on Friday.

Pictures taken by a local resident, Terry Osmond, showed a A building in Channel-Port aux Basques has collapsed surrounded by sea water on the shore, strewn timber and other debris throughout the city.

“Never in my life has there been so much devastation…in our neighborhood,” Osmond, 62, wrote for CNN.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said a woman in the town was rescued from the water on Saturday afternoon after her home collapsed. She was taken to the hospital. Police said the extent of her injuries was not immediately known.

About a 30-minute drive to the east, several buildings have been blown up in the coastal Newfoundland community of the Burnet Islands, Video posted on Facebook by Pius Scott show up. Houses – or parts of them – collapsed into piles, scattered debris on the ground and sea water.

Power outages were reported to more than half a million utility customers in Atlantic Canada on Saturday afternoon, including more than 364,000 in Nova Scotia and more than 85,000 in Prince Edward Island, according to the Poweroutage.com.

Restoring electricity was among officials’ top priorities, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said during a news conference Saturday, describing “shocking” damage across the province, including to communities that have washed their roads and littered with fallen trees and power lines.

Peter Gregg, President and CEO of Nova Scotia Power, said weather conditions remain too severe in many areas for crews to begin assessing and repairing damage. More than 900 power technicians are on the way to the area, but as storm conditions persist in parts of the county, Greg added that some customers could experience power outages for several days.

The storm made landfall in darkness early Saturday as a powerful post-tropical cyclone in eastern Nova Scotia, between Canso and Gisboro, and across Cape Breton Island in the province. Cape Breton area officials declared a state of emergency and He asked people to take shelter in place.

Cape Breton Regional Municipality Wrote On Twitter on Saturday afternoon, telecommunications systems were making it difficult for officials to receive announcement information urging residents to stay sheltered and not travel.

And she warned that “there are more than 70 closure roads and risks.”

Inland west, in Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, the roof of an apartment complex collapsed, forcing about 100 people to move to a shelter, Mayor Mike Savage told CNN Saturday.

“The scale of this storm was breathtaking,” Savage said later at a news conference on Saturday. “It turns out that everything is expected.”

In the capital of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, the police chirp Photos of the damage including the collapsed roof of the house.

“The conditions are unlike anything we’ve seen before,” Charlottetown Police wrote on Twitter early Saturday.

After passing through the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Fiona should reach the lower north shore of Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador by late Saturday, Canadian Hurricane Center He said.

Tornadoes were reported on Saturday morning Across parts of Maritime Canada, it generally ranges from 70 to 95 mph (110 to over 150 km/h). The maximum storm surge as of mid-morning was 111 mph (179 kph) in Arisaig, Nova Scotia, according to Environment Canada.

Precipitation can total up to 10 inches in some places, and major flooding is possible, forecasters say He said.

The storm has already killed at least five people and cut off electricity to millions Destroyed islands in the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean earlier this week.

Can Fiona Become the Canadian version of Storm Sandysaid Chris Fogarty, director of the Canadian Hurricane Center, before it hit Fiona. Sandy in 2012 affected 24 states and all of the East Coast, causing an estimated $78.7 billion in damage.

An unofficial air pressure record was recorded on Saturday of 931.6 megabytes on Hart Island, which would make Fiona the lowest pressure-landing storm ever, according to the Canadian Hurricane Center.

It was Fiona Class 4 A storm early Wednesday over the Atlantic after crossing the Turks and Caicos Islands and remained so until Friday afternoon, when it weakened on approach to Canada.

had become Post-Tropical Before making landfall, that is, instead of a warm core, the storm now has a cold core. It doesn’t affect the storm’s ability to produce high winds, rain and storm surge, it just means that the storm’s internal mechanics have changed.

Fiona approached Canada at the same time as the basin of low pressure and cold air in the north, much like Sandy He did, according to Bob Rubichod of the Canadian Hurricane Center.

“Sandy was bigger than Fiona expected to be equal. But the process is basically the same, where you have two features that kind of feed into each other to create one strong storm as we’ll see,” he said on Friday.

As of 2 p.m. Saturday, hurricane-force winds extended up to 115 miles from the center of Fiona, while tropical storm winds reached 405 miles, to me US National Hurricane Center.

The large bulges that Fiona generates can cause life-threatening surfing and disrupt currents not only along the Atlantic Ocean of Canada, but also on the northeastern coast of the United States and Bermuda, the epicenter of hurricanes. He said.