Weather: Hurricane Fiona heads toward Canada

Canada was bracing for the arrival of Hurricane Fiona on Friday, described by the country’s weather services as “historic” after wreaking havoc in the Caribbean, flooding and power outages in Bermuda.

“We’ll have to decide where this will go in the history books, but it will certainly be a historic and serious event for eastern Canada,” Bob Robichaud said at a press conference Friday. Meteorologists at the Canadian Hurricane Center are calling Fiona a “major” hurricane.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami, US, downgraded Fiona to a category 4 hurricane after it was briefly placed back into Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson scale. 3 In its last bulletin, winds of up to 200 km/h were reported. The NHC writes that Fiona should remain a “potent hurricane” as it passes through Canada, although it is “expected to gradually weaken.” As of 9:00 PM GMT, the hurricane was 600 km from Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Officials in Canada’s easternmost province have issued a blackout warning, asking everyone to stay indoors and stock up on supplies for at least 72 hours.

“concern”

In the neighboring province of Prince Edward Island, residents were also bracing for the storm’s arrival. “We’d be lying if we said we weren’t worried about Fiona,” Lisa Gale, owner of a waterfront restaurant in Charlottetown, told CTV.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged everyone to “take proper precautions.” “The storm is expected to make landfall on Canada’s Atlantic coast tomorrow (Saturday) morning and is expected to have a significant impact on the entire region, including parts of eastern Quebec,” he warned at a press conference on Friday.

Power outages

Earlier on Friday, Bermuda was battered by 160km/h winds and heavy rain. But after wreaking havoc in the Caribbean, Fiona passed through the mid-Atlantic, about 100 miles from the British border, with no casualties or major damage. “We are not out of danger. Prime Minister David Burt of the tiny archipelago of 64,000 people and 54 km2 warned in a tweet.

As of Friday afternoon, 15,000 out of 36,000 homes were without power, Belco, the power supplier, announced. Residents posted pictures of the flooding and downed power lines on social media. “It’s very windy outside this morning (Friday),” Jason Rayner, owner of a souvenir shop in the capital Hamilton, told AFP. “There was some minor damage to our premises, but nothing major,” he said, pointing out that a few doors and windows were torn out.

isolated

Located thousands of kilometers from the United States and prone to hurricanes, the territory is one of the most isolated places in the world, making any evacuation in the event of an emergency almost impossible. Locals say “Try to take it as it comes. And pray,” said JoAnn Scott, who works at a business in Hamilton. Due to its geographical location, the main island took products seriously. Buildings and homes must comply with strict construction codes to withstand storms.

“Buildings really do last, and we’ll never see the devastation that the Caribbean has gone through over the years,” said Elaine Murray, who helped her husband put up sheet metal at their business in Hamilton before the hurricane passed. Fiona was responsible for the deaths of four people in the US territory of Puerto Rico, an official quoted by the media said. One death was reported in Guadeloupe (France) and two in the Dominican Republic.

AFP

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