Hurricane Fiona hit the Atlantic coast of Canada hard on Saturday September 24th. Uprooted trees, washed away houses, damaged power lines… “Fiona came and left her mark on Nova Scotia and neighboring provinces”said the premier of this region, Tim Houston, during a press conference on Saturday afternoon. “It’s not completely over”at-il having you.
Violent gusts are expected to persist into the evening, noted meteorologist Bob Robichaud, noting however that “Conditions should gradually improve over the next three to six hours”. According to Canadian authorities, Fiona was still carrying sustained winds of 120 km/h at the start of the evening and was moving at a speed of 37 km/h towards the northeast:
“Big waves have reached the eastern shore of Nova Scotia and southwestern Newfoundland, and they could exceed 12 meters. »
Two women were washed away in Channel-Port-aux-Basques, in the province of Newfoundland, according to a police spokeswoman. One of the two victims, carried away after the collapse of his house, was rescued and hospitalized, the other remains missing.
500,000 homes without electricity
“Thinking of everyone affected by Hurricane Fiona. Know that we are with you”, tweeted Prime Minister Justin Trudeauannouncing that the federal authorities stood ready “to provide the provinces with additional resources”. “We have never seen such conditions” weather, said the Charlottetown police on Twitter, in the province of Prince Edward Island.
“It’s unbelievable, there is no electricity, no wifi, no more network”added the mayor of the city, Philip Brown, on the public channel Radio-Canada. “A lot of trees have fallen, there is a lot of flooding on the roads”, he added. A tree fell on a fire truck and because of a torn power line, the firefighters who were there had to wait for the intervention of technicians from Nova Scotia Power to be able to get out.
Nova Scotia Power, which supplies Nova Scotia with electricity, was still reporting more than 384,000 customers without power by early evening. In the other two provinces most affected, the Prince Edward Island operator had 82,000 households cut off from the network a little earlier, and that of New Brunswick 38,000.
The prefecture of the French archipelago of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, south of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, had warned on Thursday against “very strong winds” and an “very strong swell”and called “with the greatest vigilance” the inhabitants of these islands.
4 dead in Puerto Rico
Fiona had spent Friday off Bermuda, after wreaking havoc in the Caribbean. The hurricane inflicted gusts of 160 km / h and heavy rains on this British territory of some 64,000 inhabitants located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean but without any casualties or major damage being reported.
The territory, located a thousand kilometers from the United States and accustomed to hurricanes, is one of the most isolated places in the world, which makes any evacuation almost impossible in the event of an emergency. The main island had therefore taken the preparations seriously. Buildings and houses must also comply with strict construction rules to withstand storms.
Fiona caused the deaths of four people in Puerto Rico, a US territory, according to an official quoted by the media. One death was reported in Guadeloupe and two in the Dominican Republic.