HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, Sept 24 (Reuters) – Powerful storm Fiona slammed into eastern Canada on Saturday with hurricane-force winds, forcing evacuations, blowing down trees and power lines and leaving hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses without power. 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 passing through Nova Scotia.
After taking its toll on Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, the storm hit Newfoundland but is now likely to weaken, the NHC said.
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Port aux Basques, in the southwestern tip of Newfoundland, declared a state of emergency and is evacuating parts of the city that suffered flooding and washed out roads, according to Mayor Brian Button and police.
“First responders are dealing with multiple electrical fires, residential flooding and washouts. Residents are asked to obey evacuation orders and find a safe place to weather the storm,” the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in Newfoundland on Twitter.
“This is hitting us really, really hard right now,” Button said in a Saturday morning video posted on Facebook in which he urged residents to stay indoors or, if asked, evacuate “We’ve got some destruction in the city. … We don’t need anyone else getting hurt or injured during this.”
Homes along the coast were destroyed by storm surge, CBC reported, showing images of debris and extensive damage in the city.
Fiona, which battered Puerto Rico and other parts of the Caribbean nearly a week ago, made landfall between Canso and Guysborough, Nova Scotia, where the Canadian Hurricane Center said it recorded what could have been the highest barometric pressure down from any storm to land in the history of the country.
Ian Hubbard, a meteorologist at the Canadian Hurricane Centre, told Reuters that Fiona appeared to live up to expectations that it would be a “historic” storm.
“It looked like it had the potential to break the all-time record in Canada, and it looks like it did,” he said. “We’re not out of this yet.”
Storms are not uncommon in the region and tend to cross quickly, but Fiona is expected to affect a very large area.
Hubbard said Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island still have many hours of high winds, rain and storm surge to go through, and Newfoundland’s west coast would be battered throughout the day.
Although scientists have yet to determine whether climate change influenced Fiona’s strength or behavior, there is strong evidence that these devastating storms are getting worse.
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS WITHOUT POWER
About 79 percent of customers, or 414,000, were without power in Nova Scotia, and 95 percent, or 82,000, had lost power in Prince Edward Island, the utilities said. The region was also experiencing spotty cell phone service. Police across the region reported multiple road closures.
“It was a wild ride last night, it looked like the whole roof was going to blow off,” said Gary Hatcher, a retiree who lives in Sydney, Nova Scotia, near where the storm made landfall. A maple tree was toppled in the back yard, but did not damage his house.
Sydney recorded wind gusts of 141 km/h (88 mph), Hubbard said.
The storm weakened somewhat as it traveled north. At 11 a.m. (1500 GMT), it was over the Gulf of St. Lawrence about 100 miles (160 km) west-northwest of Port aux Basques, with maximum winds of 80 miles per hour (130 km /h) and moving north. 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 and cut power to virtually all of Puerto Rico’s 3.3 million people during a sweltering heat wave. Almost a million people were without power five days later.
No casualties have yet been reported in Canada.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delayed Saturday’s trip to 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, he said. say press secretary Cecely Roy on Twitter.
Canadian authorities sent emergency alerts to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, warning of severe coastal flooding and extremely dangerous waves. People in coastal areas were advised to evacuate.
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Reporting 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; Written by Steve Scherer; Editing by Frances Kerry and Bill Berkrot
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