One of the two, who was swept away by water after her house collapsed, was rescued and taken to a hospital, where she was admitted and is being treated, while the second is missing. At the same time, approximately 500,000 households suffered a power cut.
Cyclone Fiona hit areas of Canada’s Atlantic coast on Saturday, where a woman was swept away and about 500,000 households suffered power outages.
Unbelievable video of storm surge from Superstorm #Fiona in Newfoundland, Canada.
Shows you the extreme power and danger of storm surge at the coast. pic.twitter.com/uyvwAXaTKA
— Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) September 24, 2022
Uprooted trees, washed away houses, downed power lines: “Fiona came and left its mark on Nova Scotia and neighboring provinces,” the province’s Premier Tim Houston said during a press conference yesterday afternoon.
‼️ Fiona has provisionally broken Canada’s national air pressure record, with 931.6 hPa recorded at Hart Island, Nova Scotia according to @ECCC_CHC.
Gusts of 140 km/h have been reached in Sidney, NS & hundreds of thousands are without power.pic.twitter.com/u0wi5WYY7u
— Ben Noll (@BenNollWeather) September 24, 2022
“It’s not quite over,” he warned.
Severe thunderstorms were expected to develop overnight, meteorologist Bob Robichaud said, adding that “conditions were expected to gradually improve” in three to six hours.
According to Canadian authorities, Cyclone Fiona was still packing winds of 120 kilometers per hour at around 20:00 yesterday (Greece time) and was moving in a northeasterly direction at a speed of 37 kilometers per hour.
“High waves hit the coastline of Nova Scotia and southwestern Newfoundland and may exceed 12 meters,” they said.
Two women were swept away by the waters in Chanel-Port-au-Basque, Newfoundland province, according to a police spokeswoman. One of the two, who was swept away by water after her house collapsed, was rescued and taken to a hospital, where she was admitted and is being treated, while the second is missing.
“It’s one of the worst days of my life,” said Rene Rois, a resident of the same town. “It doesn’t stop (…) Many houses were swept into the sea,” he added in despair.
“I woke up around five in the morning because my bed was shaking!” said Sean Bond, who lives in Sidney, Nova Scotia. “I live on the second floor of a house built more than a century ago and I was shaking and hearing clicking noises that I have never heard before.”
“With you”
“Thinking of everyone affected by Cyclone Fiona. Know that we are with you,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted, announcing that federal authorities were ready to provide “additional resources” to affected provinces.
“We’ve never seen” such weather conditions, police in Charlottetown, in the Ile-de-Prince-Edoire province, said via Twitter yesterday.
“It’s unbelievable, we have no electricity, no wifi, no network,” Mayor Philip Brown told Radio-Canada.
“Many trees have fallen, we have flooding on roads,” he added.
A tree fell on a fire department vehicle and cut an electric cable, which ended up on their car. Firefighters had to wait for Nova Scotia Power technicians to intervene before they could extricate themselves.
The company, the main provider of electricity in Nova Scotia, said 348,000 of its customers were without power around 20:30 yesterday (Greece time).
In the other two hardest-hit provinces, the grid operator in Ile-de-Prince-Edoire said 82,000 households were without power and New Brunswick’s 38,000.
“Nothing serious” in Bermuda
Fiona passed the day before Friday off Bermuda after wreaking havoc in the Caribbean.
The cyclone brought winds of 100 miles per hour and heavy rain to this British region of about 64,000 in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, but no casualties were reported and no serious damage was reported.
“We had some damage (…), but nothing serious,” Jason Rayner, a souvenir shop owner in the capital Hamilton, told AFP.
Bermuda, about a thousand kilometers from the US, an area prone to cyclones, is one of the most isolated places in the world, which makes it impossible to evacuate residents in case of emergency.
The main island thus takes preparations for extreme weather very seriously. Properties and houses must also be built to strict specifications there to withstand cyclones.
Hurricane Fiona has killed four people in the US territory of Puerto Rico, according to an official cited by media. One death was reported in Guadeloupe, an offshore territory of France, and two more in the Dominican Republic.
RES-EMP
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