Fiona washes several houses in the sea in Canada; cause breakdowns

Fiona swept several homes into the sea, ripped roofs off others and knocked out power in most of Canada’s two provinces on Saturday after making landfall as a powerful post-tropical cyclone.

There was no immediate confirmation of dead and injured. The storm upgraded from a hurricane to a post-tropical storm on Friday night, but forecasters warned it was bringing high winds, heavy rain and heavy storm surge.

Storm surge hit the town of Channel-Port Aux Basques on the south coast of Newfoundland, where entire buildings were swept into the sea. Mayor Brian Button said on social media on Saturday that people were being evacuated to higher ground and power lines being downed by the winds.

Button said anyone who has been told to leave their home must do so.

“I’m looking at houses in the ocean. I see debris floating everywhere. It’s complete and utter destruction. There’s an apartment that’s gone, which is literally just rubble,” said Rene J. Roy, a resident of Channel-Port Aux Basques and editorial director of Wreckhouse Press, during a telephone interview.

Roy estimated that between eight and 12 houses and other properties were washed out to sea. “It’s very scary. I see coastal erosion. I see a house hanging in the air,” Roy added.

Jolene Garland, Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokesperson for Newfoundland and Labrador, said a woman was safe after she was ‘thrown into the water when her house collapsed’ in the area of Channel-Port Aux Basques. She said authorities had received a report that another person had been swept into the sea, but the conditions were too dangerous to immediately confirm or respond.

Garland described the extreme weather conditions along the southwest coast of Newfoundland, including “high winds, high waves, flooding and fires caused by short circuits”. Several structures were destroyed by the tidal waves, he said.

More than 415,000 Nova Scotia Power utility customers – about 45% of the provincial total of nearly one million – experienced outages Saturday morning. In addition, another 82,000 users in the province of Prince Edward Island were also without power. In turn, NB Power in New Brunswick reported that 44,329 of its customers were without power.

Fiona, which was advancing at high speed, made landfall in Nova Scotia before dawn on Saturday, with less power than the Category 4 hurricane that had the day before when passing near Bermuda, where authorities did not report significant damage.

The Canada Hurricane Center tweeted on Saturday that Fiona has the lowest pressure on record for a storm to make landfall in Canada. Forecasters had warned it could be one of the most powerful storms to hit the country.

Meanwhile, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported that New Tropical Storm Ian in the Caribbean is expected to continue to strengthen and hit Cuba early Tuesday with hurricane force, then head southward. South Florida early Wednesday.

Ian’s eye was about 270 miles (435 kilometers) southeast of Kingston, Jamaica. It had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 km/h) and was moving west-northwest at 15 mph (24 km/h). A hurricane watch has been issued for the Cayman Islands.

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Associated Press writer Morgan Lee in Ventura, Calif., contributed to this report

Spike Caldwell

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