After devastating hurricane Fiona wreaked havoc on Canada’s east coast on Saturday, attention turned to enormous cleanup operations, damage assessment, and the restoration of electricity and telecom services, though officials warned of a protracted road to recovery.
The historic storm, which caused evacuations, uprooted trees and powerlines, and left many homes “simply a pile of wreckage,” blasted into eastern Canada with hurricane-force winds.
According to the Canadian Hurricane Centre, Fiona had the lowest landfalling pressure ever recorded in Canada.
The Canadian military will be sent in to assist with the clean-up, according to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who also noted that Fiona did tremendous damage and that recovery will take a lot of work.
Government officials said that citizens’ heeding the numerous warnings was the reason there were no significant injuries or fatalities despite the storm’s ferocity.
Government officials begged the people of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island (PEI), and Newfoundland to be patient as thousands of people continued to be without power and struggle with sporadic communication connections.
They issued a warning that in some situations, it might take weeks for crucial services to fully recover.
Dennis King, the premier of PEI, told reporters on Saturday, “We do know that the devastation is very severe, very perhaps the worst we have ever seen.”
Islanders “should realize that it will take weeks or more for us to recuperate. A “all hands on deck” strategy will be used, he added.
In response to the Fiona-related power loss, a line of hungry university students formed outside of gas-powered convenience stores.
An initiative to raise money for the impacted persons has been started by the Canadian Red Cross.
Officials from the government stated that it will take days and weeks before the entire extent of the destruction is revealed. Fiona, however, was reminiscent of the destruction brought on by past storms, such as Hurricane Dorian in 2019, which is thought to have cost the insurance industry C$105 million in repair costs. The storm was carrying gusts of up to 170 km/hour that were sweeping away homes, bridges, and roadways.
After the storm tore off the roofs of schools and community centres, the premiers of the affected provinces informed the federal government that they needed long-term support for public and critical infrastructure as well as immediate relief for businesses and families so they could quickly return to their normal lives.
If the country’s C$3.2 billion lobster industry is not fully recovered before the season begins in a few weeks, the storm’s catastrophic damage to fishing harbours in Atlantic Canada might affect the sector.
The Canadian Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Dominic LeBlanc, stated on Saturday that the fishermen “have a very pressing need” to be able to access their source of income after the storm.
Therefore, he continued, “This is precisely the kind of effort that will support provincial authorities in the ensuing weeks and months.”