Storm Fiona hits Canada’s east coast, causing power outages

By: News Team

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Powerful Storm Fiona slammed into eastern Canada on Saturday with gale-force winds, downing trees and power lines and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses.

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the center of the storm, now called Post-Tropical Cyclone Fiona, is in the Gulf of St. Lawrence after passing through Nova Scotia. Downed trees and power lines were reported in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

Fiona, which devastated 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 may have been the lowest barometric pressure storm to make landfall in the country history.

About 79% of customers, or 414,000, were without power in Nova Scotia, and 95%, or 82,000, had lost power in Prince Edward Island, the utilities said. Mobile phone service in the region was also spotty. Police across the region reported multiple road closures.

The storm weakened somewhat as it moved north. At 1200 GMT, it was over the Gulf of St. Lawrence, about 340 km northeast of Halifax, with maximum winds of 140 kilometers per hour (85 mph) and moving north at about 37 kph (23 mph), according to the HNC.

Experts forecast strong winds, storm surges and heavy rain from Fiona. The storm is forecast to gradually weaken but is expected to maintain gale-force winds through Saturday afternoon, the NHC said.

Fiona, previously designated a hurricane, hit the Caribbean islands earlier in the week, killing at least eight people and leaving virtually all of Puerto Rico’s 3.3 million people without power during a sweltering heat wave. Nearly a million people were still without power five days later.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delayed his Saturday departure for Japan, where he was to attend former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s funeral, to receive briefings and support the government’s emergency response, press secretary Cecely Roy said on Twitter ( NYSE: TWTR ).

A hurricane warning was in effect for much of central Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, home to more than 150,000 people, and parts of Newfoundland, the Miami-based NHC said.

Canadian authorities have issued emergency alerts in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, warning of severe flooding along coastlines and extremely dangerous waves. Residents of coastal areas were advised to evacuate.

The storm could prove more ferocious than Hurricane Juan in 2003 and Hurricane Dorian in 2019, Canadian Hurricane Center meteorologist Bob Robichaud said at a briefing on Friday.

The country’s two largest carriers, Air Canada (TSX: ) and WestJet Airlines, suspended regional service effective Friday night.

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