Fiona washed houses into the sea, tore the roofs off others and knocked out power to the vast majority of two Canadian provinces as it made landfall before dawn Saturday as a big, powerful post-tropical cyclone.
Fiona transformed into a post-tropical storm late Friday, but it still had hurricane-strength winds and brought drenching rains and huge waves. There was no confirmation of fatalities or injuries.
Ocean waves pounded the town of Channel-Port Aux Basques on the southern coast of Newfoundland, where entire structures were washed into the sea. Mayor Brian Button said Saturday over social media that people were being evacuated to high ground as winds knocked down power lines.
B次元官网网址淚B次元官网网址檓 seeing homes in the ocean. IB次元官网网址檓 seeing rubble floating all over the place. ItB次元官网网址檚 complete and utter destruction. ThereB次元官网网址檚 an apartment that is gone,B次元官网网址� Ren茅 J. Roy, a resident of Channel-Port Aux Basques and chief editor at Wreckhouse Press, said in a phone interview.
Roy estimated between eight to 12 houses and buildings have washed into the sea. B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 quite terrifying,B次元官网网址� he said.
Jolene Garland, a spokeswoman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Newfoundland and Labrador, said a woman was safe and in B次元官网网址済ood healthB次元官网网址� after being B次元官网网址渢ossed into the water as her home collapsedB次元官网网址� in the Channel-Port Aux Basques area. Garland said that an individual who might have been swept away was still reported as missing and that high winds were preventing an aerial search.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the town of 4,000 people was in a state of emergency as authorities dealt with multiple electrical fires and residential flooding.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau canceled his trip to Japan for the funeral for assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Trudeau said the federal government would deploy the Canadian Armed Forces to assist.
B次元官网网址淲e are seeing devastating images coming out of Port aux Basques. PEI (Prince Edward Island) has experienced storm damage like theyB次元官网网址檝e never seen. Cape Breton is being hit hard, too,B次元官网网址� Trudeau said.
B次元官网网址淐anadians are thinking of all those affected by Hurricane Fiona, which is having devastating effects in the Atlantic provinces and eastern Quebec, particularly in the Magdalen Islands. There are people who see their houses destroyed, people who are very worried B次元官网网址� we will be there for you.B次元官网网址�
Halifax Mayor Mike Savage said the roof of an apartment building collapsed and they moved 100 people to an evacuation center. He said no one was seriously hurt or killed. Provincial officials said there are other apartment buildings that are also significantly damaged. Halifax has about 160 people displaced from two apartments, officials said.
More than 415,000 Nova Scotia Power customers B次元官网网址� about 80% of the province of almost 1 million B次元官网网址� were affected by outages Saturday morning. Over 82,000 customers in the province of Prince Edward Island, about 95%, were also without power, while NB Power in New Brunswick reported 44,329 were without electricity.
The Canadian Hurricane Centre tweeted early Saturday that Fiona had the lowest pressure ever recorded for a storm making landfall in Canada. Forecasters had warned it could be the one of the most powerful storms to hit the country.
B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檙e getting more severe storms more frequently,B次元官网网址� Trudeau said Saturday.
He said more resilient infrastructure is needed to be able withstand extreme weather events, saying a one in a 100 year storm might start to hit every few years because of climate change.
B次元官网网址淭hings are only getting worse,B次元官网网址� Trudeau said.
A state of local emergency was also declared by the mayor and council of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.
B次元官网网址淭here are homes that have been significantly damaged due to downed trees, big old trees falling down and causing significant damage. WeB次元官网网址檙e also seeing houses that their roofs have completely torn off, windows breaking in. There is a huge amount of debris in the roadways,B次元官网网址� Amanda McDougall, mayor of Cape Breton Regional Municipality, told The Associated Press
B次元官网网址淭here is a lot of damage to belongings and structures but no injuries to people as of this point. Again weB次元官网网址檙e still in the midst of this,B次元官网网址� she said. B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 still terrifying. IB次元官网网址檓 just sitting here in my living room and it feels like the patio doors are going to break in with those big gusts.B次元官网网址�
Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said roads were washed out, including his own, and said an B次元官网网址渋ncredibleB次元官网网址� amount of trees were down.
B次元官网网址淚t is pretty devastating. The sad reality is the people who need information are unable to hear it. Their phones are not working, they donB次元官网网址檛 have power or access to the internet,B次元官网网址� Houston said.
Peter Gregg, President and CEO of Nova Scotia Power, said unprecedented peak winds caused severe damage. B次元官网网址淚n many areas, weather conditions are still too dangerous for our crews to get up in our bucket trucks,B次元官网网址� Gregg said. He said about 380,000 customers remain without power as of Saturday afternoon.
Prince Edward Island Premier Dennis King said they had no reports of any significant injuries or deaths. But he said few communities were spared damage, with the devastation looking to be beyond anything they had seen previously in the province. He said over 95% of islanders remained without power.
Federal Minister of Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair said there was very extensive damage at the airport in Sydney, Nova Scotia. He said other airports also were hit, but that damage at the Halifax facility, Nova ScotiaB次元官网网址檚 largest airport, was minor.
Fiona had weakened to tropical storm strength late Saturday afternoon as it moved across the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In its final report on Fiona, the U.S. hurricane center said it had maximum sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph). It was centered about 80 miles (130 kilomters) northwest of Port aux Basques and moving northeast at 8 mph (13 kph).
Tropical storm-force winds extended outward up to 550 miles (890 kilometers).
Hurricanes in Canada are somewhat rare, in part because once the storms reach colder waters, they lose their main source of energy. But post-tropical cyclones still can have hurricane-strength winds, although they have a cold core and no visible eye. They also often lose their symmetric form and more resemble a comma.
In Sydney, Nova Scotia, the largest city in Cape Breton, about 20 people took refuge at the Centre 200 sports and entertainment facility, said Christina Lamey, a spokeswoman for the region. Lamey said there were hundreds of people displaced in the province.
Arlene and Robert Grafilo fled to Centre 200 with their children, ages 3 and 10, after a huge tree fell on their duplex apartment.
B次元官网网址淲e were trapped and we couldnB次元官网网址檛 open the doors and the windows, so thatB次元官网网址檚 when we decided to call 911,B次元官网网址� Arlene Grafilo said. She said firefighters eventually rescued them.
Peter MacKay, a former foreign minister and defense minister who lives in Nova Scotia, said he and his family had a long night and said the winds were still raging in the afternoon.
B次元官网网址淲e had put everything we could out of harmB次元官网网址檚 way, but the house got hammered pretty hard. Lost lots of shingles, heavy water damage in ceilings, walls, our deck is destroyed. A garage that I was building blew away,B次元官网网址� MacKay said in an email to The Associated Press.
B次元官网网址淣ever seen anything like it. Lived through some crazy weather,B次元官网网址� he added.
He called the images from Newfoundland heartbreaking.
Fiona so far has been blamed for at least five deaths B次元官网网址� two in , two in the Dominican Republic and one in the French island of Guadeloupe.
In the Caribbean, Tropical Storm Ian was predicted to rapidly strengthen in the coming days. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said it could move over western Cuba and toward the west coast of Florida or the Florida Panhandle by the middle of next week.
Ian was centered about 685 miles (1,105 kilometers) southeast of the western tip of Cuba, late Saturday. It had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph) and was moving west at 13 mph (20 kph). A hurricane watch was issued for the Cayman Islands.
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Associated Press writer Morgan Lee in Ventura, California, contributed to this report.
Rob Gillies, The Associated Press
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