Hurricane Fiona blasted the Turks and Caicos Islands, devastating Puerto Rico, leaving people without electricity or running water. Video / AP
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 as a big, powerful post-tropical cyclone.
Fiona transformed from a hurricane into a post-tropical storm, 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 on Saturday over social media that people were being evacuated to high ground as winds knocked down power lines.
Fiona transformed from a hurricane into a post-tropical storm, but it still had hurricane-strength winds. Graphic / Richard Dale
"I'm seeing homes in the ocean. I'm seeing rubble floating all over the place. It's complete and utter destruction. There's an apartment that is gone," René 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. "It's quite terrifying," he said.
A home fights against high winds caused by post-tropical storm Fiona in Channel-Port aux Basques, Newfoundland and Labrador. Photo / AP
Jolene Garland, a spokeswoman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Newfoundland and Labrador, said a woman was safe and in "good health" after being "tossed into the water as her home collapsed" 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 cancelled his trip to Japan for the funeral of assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Trudeau said the federal government would deploy the Canadian Armed Forces to assist.
"We are seeing devastating images coming out of Port aux Basques. PEI [Prince Edward Island] has experienced storm damage as they've never seen. Cape Breton is being hit hard, too," Trudeau said.
"Canadians 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 — we will be there for you."
Halifax Mayor Mike Savage said the roof of an apartment building collapsed and 100 people had to be moved to an evacuation centre. 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 — about 80 per cent of the province of almost 1 million — were affected by outages Saturday morning. Over 82,000 customers in the province of Prince Edward Island, about 95 per cent, 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 one of the most powerful storms to hit the country.
Highway crews clean debris caused by post-tropical storm Fiona. Photo / AP
"We're getting more severe storms more frequently," Trudeau said Saturday.
He said more resilient infrastructure is needed to be able to withstand extreme weather events, saying what was previously a once-a-century type of storm event might start to hit every few years because of climate change.
"Things are only getting worse," Trudeau said.
A state of local emergency was also declared by the mayor and council of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.
"There are homes that have been significantly damaged due to downed trees, big old trees falling down and causing significant damage. We're also seeing houses whose roofs have [been] completely torn off; windows breaking in. There is a huge amount of debris in the roadways," Amanda McDougall, Mayor of Cape Breton Regional Municipality, told The Associated Press.
"There is a lot of damage to belongings and structures but no injuries to people as of this point. Again, we're still in the midst of this," she said. "It's still terrifying. I'm just sitting here in my living room and it feels like the patio doors are going to break in with those big gusts."
Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said roads were washed out, including his own, and said an "incredible" amount of trees were down.
"It is pretty devastating. The sad reality is the people who need information are unable to hear it. Their phones are not working; they don't have power or access to the internet," Houston said.
Peter Gregg, president and CEO of Nova Scotia Power, said unprecedented peak winds caused severe damage. "In many areas, weather conditions are still too dangerous for our crews to get up in our bucket trucks," 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 per cent 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 Scotia's largest airport, was minor.
Fiona had weakened to tropical storm strength late on Saturday afternoon as it moved across the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In its final report on Fiona, the US' National Hurricane Center said it had maximum sustained winds of 110 km/ph. It was centred about 130km northwest of Channel-Port aux Basques, and moving northeast at 13 km/ph.
Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 890km.
Fallen trees lean against a house as post-tropical storm Fiona continues to batter the Maritimes. Photo / AP
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 can still have hurricane-strength winds, although they have a cold core and no visible eye. They also often lose their symmetric form, and 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, aged 3 and 10, after a huge tree fell on their duplex apartment.
"We were trapped and we couldn't open the doors and the windows, so that's when we decided to call 911," Arlene Grafilo said. She said firefighters eventually rescued them.
Peter MacKay, a former foreign minister and defence 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.
"We had put everything we could out of harm's way, but the house got hammered pretty hard. Lost lots of shingles, heavy water damage in ceilings, walls, and our deck is destroyed. A garage that I was building blew away," MacKay said in an email to The Associated Press.
"Never seen anything like it. Lived through some crazy weather," he added.
He called the images from Newfoundland heartbreaking.
Fiona has so far been blamed for at least five deaths — two in Puerto Rico, 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 US' 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 centred about 370km south of Kingston, Jamaica, early Saturday evening. It had maximum sustained winds of 75km/ph and was moving west at 22km/ph. A hurricane watch was issued for the Cayman Islands.
