Hurricane Fiona knocks out power in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick as it makes landfall.
Hurricane Fiona knocked out power to more than 500,000 customers in eastern Canada, damaging homes with high winds and rain as it transformed from a hurricane into a post-tropical storm.
More than 415,000 Nova Scotia Power customers – about 80% of the province – were affected by outages Saturday morning. More than 82,000 customers in the province of Prince Edward Island were also without power, while in New Brunswick, 44,329 were without power.
“There is a lot of damage to property and structures, but no injuries at this stage. Again, we’re still in the middle of this,” Amanda McDougall, mayor of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, told the Associated Press news agency. “It’s always terrifying. I’m just sitting here in my living room and I feel like the patio doors are going to break in with these big gusts. It’s loud and it’s shocking.
The Federal Department of Public Safety has advised against all non-essential travel by car.
A hurricane watch has been issued for the coastal stretches of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has decided to postpone his trip to Japan for the funeral of slain former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
“We sure hope there won’t be much to do, but we think there probably will be,” Trudeau said. “Listen to instructions from local authorities and hang in there for the next 24 hours.”
Speedy Fiona lost the power of the Category 4 strength she had early Friday as through Bermudabut meteorologists warned it could still have hurricane-force winds and bring torrential rains and huge waves.
The Canadian Hurricane Center tweeted early Saturday that Fiona had the lowest pressure on record for a storm making landfall in Canada. Forecasters had warned it could be one of the most powerful storms to hit the country.
Here is the latest update on #Fiona. Fiona will continue to move northeast today bringing damaging winds, waves and storm surge.https://t.co/InPO6wTJg2 pic.twitter.com/vfM9Jmqyqg
— ECCC Canadian Hurricane Center (@ECCC_CHC) September 24, 2022
A local state of emergency has been declared by the Cape Breton Regional Municipality’s mayor and council due to widespread power outages, road closures and damage to homes.