Post-tropical storm Fiona live updates: Houses in Port aux Basques, N.L. wash away as Atlantic Canada battered

Post-tropical storm Fiona strikes Port aux Basque, Newfoundland on Sept. 24, 2022Wreckhouse Press/Handout

Fiona arrived in Nova Scotia as a post-tropical storm early Saturday morning. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the centre of the storm made landfall on the Canso Peninsula near Hart Island and Guysborough.

Here are the latest updates on post-tropical storm Fiona:

11:23 a.m. ET Power outages may last until middle of week for some communities

People work to drag a fallen tree limb from their street as post tropical storm Fiona causes widespread damage in Halifax on Sept. 24, 2022.Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press

In Halifax, the streets were littered with uprooted trees, power poles snapped in pieces, and draping power lines. The loud hum of generators filled the air as homeowners prepared for days without electricity.

At 11:30 p.m. Friday night Andrew Inch heard a thump and was shocked to see a fifty-foot maple tree had fallen against the front of his two-storey north end Halifax home.

“It was hard to sleep last night knowing a tree is resting against the side of the house. It is being suspended in part by a Nova Scotia Power wire, or maybe a few branches,” said Mr. Inch, who has two young children.

“The kids woke up this morning and were very excited that they had a treehouse in their front yard.”

Nova Scotia Power is predicting lengthy outages from Hurricane Fiona. There are still 400,000 customers without power across the province. Crews from New Brunswick, Maine and Quebec are joining local crews to help with the storm restoration, which may take up until the middle of next week for some communities.

Power crews are preparing to go up in buckets to start restoring power when the winds decrease below 80 kilometres an hour.

– Lindsay Jones, Halifax, N.S.

11:06 a.m. ET Houses wash away in Port aux Basques, N.L.; one person reported missing

An evacuation order was made in several communities along Newfoundland’s southwestern coast, where a massive storm surge and thunderous waves were washing homes in the ocean. In Port aux Basques N.L., a two-storey apartment building was pulled into the sea, along with multiple buildings. One person was reported missing as emergency officials went door to door, urging people to leave.

Images and video from the community show houses sliding into the water, getting smashed on the rocks, and floating out to sea. In Burnt Islands, N.L. a causeway that connects the community was swallowed by the rising ocean waters, as sheds, homes and other buildings disappeared into the waves.

“Connection to the island portion of the community of Burnt Islands now cut off. I’m told some folks are stuck on the other side, but at a higher location,” tweeted Michael King, a special advisor to Newfoundland and Labrador premier Andrew Furey.

– Greg Mercer, Saint John N.B.

10:29 a.m. ET Explainer: How climate change is affecting the intensity of hurricanes

Climate change is making hurricanes wetter, windier and altogether more intense. There is also evidence that it is causing storms to travel more slowly, meaning they can dump more water in one place.

If it weren’t for the oceans, the planet would be much hotter due to climate change. But in the last 40 years, the ocean has absorbed about 90% of the warming caused by heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions. Much of this ocean heat is contained near the water’s surface. This additional heat can fuel a storm’s intensity and power stronger winds.

Climate change can also boost the amount of rainfall delivered by a storm. Because a warmer atmosphere can also hold more moisture, water vapour builds up until clouds break, sending down heavy rain.

– Reuters

9:27 a.m. ET Trudeau delays trip to Japan; federal government in touch with local MPs to provide assistance

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has delayed his Saturday departure for Japan, where he was to attend the funeral of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The federal government has pledged support of the affected provinces, according to tweets from Mr. Trudeau’s press secretary Cecely Roy posted last night.

9:15 a.m. ET Post-tropical storm Fiona’s forecasted path

Murat Yukselir/The Globe and Mail

8:36 a.m. ET Power repair, emergency services delayed by high winds, flooding

The number of people without power is expected to climb as the day goes on. In many areas, high winds are making it too dangerous for hydro crews to begin repair work. The drone of generators can be heard in many neighbourhoods as people wake up to dark streets.

Multiple communities, particularly on Prince Edward Island, eastern Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, have declared local states of emergencies, asking residents not to leave their homes. Police in Charlottetown, where trees were uprooted and split in half, say the conditions are the worst they’ve ever seen. RCMP on Prince Edward Island are telling residents to stay away from windows out of concern over flying debris.

In eastern New Brunswick, a storm surge caused by large waves have flooded multiple roads in coastal areas and have forced some people from their homes. Emergency officials are warning people to be patient in their requests for help, with significant tree damage blocking roadways and slowing their ability to reach certain areas.

– Greg Mercer, Saint John, N.B.

8:18 a.m. ET Cape Breton declares state of emergency

The Cape Breton Regional Municipality has declared a state of emergency as post-tropical storm Fiona – one of the strongest storms to ever strike Canada’s East Coast – continues to lash the island.

In Sydney, N.S., the largest city in Cape Breton, the wind caused severe damage to some homes, forcing families to flee.

“We’ve had several structural failures,” said Christina Lamey, a spokeswoman for the region. She confirmed that no one was hurt. She said it was unclear how many homes had been damaged, but there reports of collapsed walls and a missing roofs.

“The key message from that is for people to stay at home,” Lamey said in an interview. “The first responders are really stretched right now. We want people to stay off the roads. Most of the roads have hazards on them, with power lines down and trees down as well.”

– The Canadian Press

8:13 a.m. ET Photos capture the damage so far as Fiona pummels Maritimes

7:50 a.m. ET Fiona makes landfall in Nova Scotia; hundreds of thousands without power in Maritimes

Ian Livingstone surveys the damage to his house from a fallen tree early in the morning in Halifax on Sept. 24, 2022 as post tropical storm Fiona continues to batter the Maritimes.Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press

Post-tropical storm Fiona made landfall early Saturday in Nova Scotia and is the lowest pressured land falling storm on record in Canada, according to The Canadian Hurricane Centre.

The storm knocked out power to more than 500,000 customers in the Maritimes early Saturday, with most of the damage reported in eastern Nova Scotia, across P.E.I. and Cape Breton. As of 7 a.m. local time, Maritime Electric was reporting outages affecting 82,138 customers, out of the 86,000 served by the utility company. Nova Scotia Power reported 412,041 customers were in the dark, and NB Power reported 44,329 were without electricity.

The centre said widespread gusts between 90 and 120 km/h have been reported over Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Iles-de-la-Madeleine, and southwestern Newfoundland, with a peak gusts to 161 km/h over Beaver Island, NS.

Parts of eastern mainland Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island have recorded 75 to 125 mm of rainfall.

The “historic” storm was forecasted to bring between 100 to 200 millimetres of rain across much of Atlantic Canada and eastern Quebec, with more than 200 millimetres expected to fall in areas closer to the storm’s path.

– The Canadian Press