© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Francis Bruhm, project manager for general contractor G&R Kelly, places sandbags around the doors of the Nova Scotia Power building ahead of Hurricane Fiona’s landfall in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on May 23 September 2022. REUTERS/Ingrid Bulme
By Eric Martyn and John Morris
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (Reuters) – Powerful storm Fiona slammed into eastern Canada on Saturday with hurricane-force winds, forcing evacuations, blowing through trees and power lines and leaving hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses without electricity.
The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the center of the storm, downgraded to post-tropical cyclone Fiona, was now in the Gulf of St. Lawrence after crossing Nova Scotia.
After wreaking havoc in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, the storm hit Newfoundland but is now expected to weaken, the NHC said.
According to Mayor Brian Button and police, Port aux Basques, on the southwestern tip of Newfoundland, has declared a state of emergency and is evacuating parts of town that have been flooded and washed away by roads.
“First responders are dealing with multiple electrical fires, residential flooding and washouts. Residents are urged to obey evacuation orders and find a safe place to ride out the storm,” the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Earth. -New on Twitter (NYSE:).
“It’s hitting us really, really hard right now,” Button said in a video posted Saturday morning to Facebook (NASDAQ:) in which he urged residents to stay indoors or, if asked, evacuate. “We’ve got quite a bit of destruction in town… We don’t need anyone else getting hurt or injured during all of this.”
Homes along the coastline were destroyed by the storm surge, CBC reported, showing footage of debris and extensive damage in the city.
Fiona, which battered Puerto Rico nearly a week ago and other parts of the Caribbean, made landfall between Canso and Guysborough, Nova Scotia, where the Canadian Hurricane Center said it recorded this which could have been the lowest barometric pressure of any landfall storm in the nation’s history.
Canadian Hurricane Center meteorologist Ian Hubbard told Reuters it appears Fiona has lived up to expectations that it will be a “historic” storm.
“It looked like he had the potential to break the all-time Canadian record, and it looks like he did,” he said. “We’re not out of it yet.”
Storms are not uncommon in the region and usually intersect quickly, but Fiona is expected to affect a very large area.
Hubbard said Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island still have many hours of strong winds, rain and storm surges to go, and Newfoundland’s west coast would be pounded all throughout the day.
Although scientists have not yet determined whether climate change has influenced Fiona’s strength or behavior, there is strong evidence that these devastating storms are getting worse.
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS WITHOUT POWER
Some 79% of customers, or 414,000, were without power in Nova Scotia, and 95%, or 82,000, had lost power in Prince Edward Island, utility companies said. . The area also experienced spotty mobile phone service. Police across the region reported multiple road closures.
“She was crazy last night, it looked like the whole roof was going to collapse,” said Gary Hatcher, a retiree who lives in Sydney, Nova Scotia, near where the storm made landfall. A maple tree was knocked over in his backyard but did not damage his house.
Sydney recorded wind gusts of 141 kph (88 mph), Hubbard said.
The storm weakened somewhat as it moved north. At 1100 (1500 GMT) it was over the Gulf of St. Lawrence about 100 miles (160 km) west-northwest of Port aux Basques, carrying maximum winds of 80 miles per hour (130 km/h) and heading north. at around 25 mph (41 km/h), the NHC said.
Fiona is expected to maintain hurricane-force winds through Saturday afternoon, the NHC said.
As a powerful hurricane when it hit the Caribbean islands earlier in the week, Fiona killed at least eight people and knocked out power to nearly all of Puerto Rico’s 3.3 million people. during a sweltering heat wave. Almost a million people were left without power five days later.
No casualties have yet been reported in Canada.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delayed leaving Saturday for Japan, where he was due to attend the funeral of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, to receive briefings and support the government’s emergency response, the attaché said. press Cecely Roy on Twitter.
Canadian authorities have sent emergency alerts to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, warning of severe flooding along the shores and extremely dangerous waves. Residents of coastal areas have been told to evacuate.
(Reporting by Eric Martyn in Halifax and John Morris in Stephenville; Additional reporting by Ivelisse Rivera in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Ismail Shakil and Steve Scherer in Ottawa; Writing by Steve Scherer; Editing by Frances Kerry and Bill Berkrot)