Two people have died in Canada after the “immense” devastation caused by powerful Storm Fiona – which swept homes into the sea and caused major power outages for hundreds of thousands of residents.
Officials found the body of a 73-year-old woman who was killed after her home in Newfoundland was destroyed, while another person died on Prince Edward Island, where generator problems may have played a role.
The Newfoundland woman is believed to have been sheltering in her basement when waves up to 40 feet high broke through her home and swept her out to sea.
The storm – previously classified as a hurricane – packed intense 80mph winds as it arrived with a force rarely seen in eastern Canada, bringing torrential rain and waves up to 40ft.
“The devastation is immense,” said Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston. “The magnitude of the storm is unbelievable.”
More than 300,000 people were still without power in five provinces on Sunday after the storm felled trees, ripped off roofs from buildings and damaged power lines, officials said. Hundreds of utilities worked to restore power.
A picture shows damage caused to homes along the coast by Hurricane Fiona in Channel-Port aux Basques, Nova Scotia, Canada
Homes were swept into the water by high winds and cataclysmic 40-foot waves, including at least 20 homes swept away in Channel-Port aux Basques, Newfoundland
A person looks out to sea following Hurricane Fiona’s arrival in Channel-Port Aux Basques, where Mayor Brian Button described the damage as “a total war zone”.
A person points to a damaged home following the arrival of Hurricane Fiona in Port Aux Basques
Fiona had previously claimed seven lives when it sped through the Caribbean at the start of a week of chaos.
Storm surges have washed at least 20 homes into the sea in the town of Channel-Port aux Basques on the southwestern tip of Newfoundland.
Mayor Brian Button described “a total war zone” in the coastal community as residents anticipated the damage, although 200 residents were evacuated before the storm hit.
“Some people have lost everything, and I mean everything,” Button told CBC News.
“The sea took back the land and we were separated. Many of our homes are built along the coast along the Atlantic Ocean. Fiona just wiped out bits of it down there,’ he said.
Tempers were frayed on Sunday as residents tried to return to their homes – or what was left of them.
“I know people are showing up at the barricades this morning angrily wanting to move in and check their properties,” Button said in a live video on Facebook.
“The weather may have cleared up, but the situation hasn’t cleared up at all. You have to give us a little bit of time… Unfortunately, this will take days, can take weeks, in some cases it can take months,” he said.
“I see houses in the ocean. I see debris floating everywhere. It is complete and utter destruction. There’s an apartment that’s gone that’s literally rubble,” René J. Roy, a resident of Channel-Port Aux Basques and editor-in-chief at Wreckhouse Press, said in a phone interview.
Roy estimates between eight and 20 houses and buildings were washed into the sea. “It’s pretty frightening,” he said.
Nova Scotia Premier Houston told CBC the Canadian military has been deployed to help clear trees and roads.
Emergency Preparedness Secretary Bill Blair said Canadian forces would also support clean-up efforts in Newfoundland.
This is the third province to request federal military assistance, after Nova Scotia on Saturday and Prince Edward Island early Sunday.
“Preliminary assessments suggest that our overall road infrastructure may have fared a little better than we originally thought, but there are significant pockets of severe damage across Prince Edward Island,” said PEI Premier Dennis King.
“The scale and severity of the damage exceeds anything we have seen in our province’s history,” King added.
Port aux Basques Mayor Brian Button speaks to two people whose homes were damaged following the arrival of Hurricane Fiona
Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said “the devastation is immense” and the Canadian military has been deployed to help with the cleanup
Damage caused by Fiona on the Burnt Islands in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador
City officials speak to a woman whose home was destroyed in Port Aux Basques after Hurricane Fiona
Television images showed a long line of cars and people on foot queuing to get gas for generators in Cape Breton, an island off Nova Scotia, where dozens had spent the night at Canadian Red Cross relief centers.
In Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown Police Chief Brad MacConnell asked residents to stay indoors while rescue efforts continue.
“We are asking people to stay home unless absolutely necessary,” he told CBC, adding that there was “a lot of devastation” and hardly any area of the city that wasn’t significantly affected.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Twitter he had met again with his Incident Response Group to ensure “resources are available to assist those affected by the storm.”
That Canadian Hurricane Center called the storm “the lowest-pressured landfall storm on record in Canada.” Lower pressure systems cause more intense storms and provide lift and moisture in the atmosphere to fuel showers and thunderstorms.
The measurement of 931.6 mb would not only be a Canadian record, but the lowest pressure ever observed in Canada or the US for a storm north of the Gulf Coast, according to Yale Climate Connections.
The pressure is similar to what would normally be expected from a Category 4 hurricane, but it is only a tropical storm because of the large pressure difference across the storm.
Hurricanes in Canada are somewhat rare, in part because once the storms reach colder waters, they lose their primary source of energy. But post-tropical cyclones can still have hurricane-force winds despite having a cold core and no visible eye. They also often lose their symmetrical shape and more closely resemble a comma.
Port Aux Basques Mayor Brian Button, who described his town as a “total war zone,” walks through town surveying the damage following the arrival of Hurricane Fiona
This handout image provided by Pauline Billard on September 25, 2022 shows damage caused by Hurricane Fiona in Rose Blanche-Harbour le Cou, Canada