Fiona: Videos Show Destruction of ‘Most Intense’ Storm Hitting Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia #NovaScotia
As the storm makes its way up the East Coast, footage is emerging of former Hurricane Fiona battering parts of Eastern Canada.
As of Saturday, Fiona has been downgraded from a hurricane to a post-tropical cyclone and is ripping its way through the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Despite the downgrade, Reuters reported that parts of the region were getting hit with hurricane-force winds, knocking out power, damaging buildings, and forcing some residents to evacuate.
Overall, Fiona was considered one of the most intense storms ever to hit Nova Scotia. According to Reuters, the storm also battered the province of Prince Edward Island and is moving towards Newfoundland throughout the rest of Saturday, where it is expected to weaken.
Above, a shot of birds fleeing as post-tropical cyclone Fiona made its way through Nova Scotia on Saturday. Videos have begin to emerge online of the devastation left by the former hurricane in Nova Scotia. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
As the storm made its way through Nova Scotia on Saturday morning, storm chaser Aaron Jayjack captured videos of it in action.
“Relentless winds in Sydney, NS from record breaking storm sending debris flying everywhere,” Jayjack tweeted alongside a video showing winds shaking trees and power lines wildly.
“Daylight is beginning to break as Ferocious Fiona continues to rip away at Nova Scotia,” Jayjack tweeted 12 minutes later, alongside a video showing power line poles near a shopping plaza beginning to be pulled down. “Hydro poles and lines coming down across the roadways in Sydney.”
Another storm chaser in Nova Scotia, Josh Morgerman, shared a series of videos from the area of Glace Bay, showing several trees that had been knocked over in a residential area, huge rolling waves off the coast of the province, and debris being knocked around at a gas station.
Joel Harden, a member of Ontario’s provincial parliament, shared a photo of a downed tree in Nova Scotia alongside a message about extreme weather exacerbated by climate change.
“We marched for climate action in 7500 cities yesterday,” he tweeted. “This morning we see extreme weather damage in #PEI and #NovaScotia. 4 months ago #Ottawa had similar images. We are living in a climate emergency. Half-measures won’t help.”
“Wow! Extreme wind and waves at the docks in [Louisbourg],” storm chaser and meteorologist Mark Robinson tweeted alongside a video of himself at a pier experiencing fierce winds and rain.
According to Axios, Fiona resulted in roughly 540,000 Eastern Canadians losing power after it made landfall on Saturday morning. Among those affected were nearly all 86,000 power customers serviced in Prince Edward Island.
Newsweek reached out to weather officials in the Canadian government for comment.