Fiona rips into Canada, homes razed, thousands without power
Nasa says it is forgoing a launch opportunit y and preparing for rollback fr om t he launchpad while keeping a watch on St or m Ian; emergency delared in Florida ahead of expected storm
Powerful storm Fiona slammed into eastern Canada on Saturday with hurricane-force winds, forcing evacuations, blowing over trees and powerlines, and reducing many homes to “just a pile of rubble.”
The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the center of the storm, downgraded to Posttropical Cyclone Fiona, was now in the Gulf of St. Lawrence ater racing through Nova Scotia.
Some 79% of customers, or 414,000, were without power in Nova Scotia, and 95%, or 82,000, had lost power on Prince Edward Island, utility companies said. Police across the region reported multiple road closures. The region was also experiencing spoty mobile phone service.
Mobile and Wifi provider Rogers Communications Inc said it was aware to outages caused by Fiona, and said crews would work to restore service “as quickly as possible.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delayed Saturday’s departure for Japan, where he was to atend the funeral of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, to receive briefings and support the government’s emergency response, Press Secretary Cecely Roy said on Twiter.
Prince Edward Island produces more than a fith of Canada’s potatoes and the island’s potato farms, which are in harvest season, were likely to be impacted by the storm, Hubbard said.
Ater taking its toll on Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, the storm batered Newfoundland, but is now likely to weaken, the NHC said.
Port aux Basques, with a population of 4,067 on the southwest tip of Newfoundland, declared a state of emergency and is evacuating parts of the town that suffered flooding and road washouts, according to police, Mayor Brian Buton, and resident Rene Roy.
Several homes and an apartment building were dragged out to sea, Rene Roy, editor in chief if Wreckhouse Weekly in Port aux Basques, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
“This is hands down the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Roy said.
Many homes are “just a pile of rubble in the ocean right now... There is an apartment building that’s literally gone. There are entire streets that are gone.”
Police are investigating whether a woman had been swept to sea, CBC reported.
“This is hiting us really, really hard right now,” Buton said in a Saturday morning video posted on Facebook in which he urged residents to stay indoors or, if asked, to evacuate. “We have a fair bit of destruction in town... We do not need anyone else injured or hurt in during this.”
Fiona, which nearly a week ago batered Puerto Rico and other parts of the Caribbean, killed at least eight and knocked out power for virtually all of Puerto Rico’s 3.3 million people during a sweltering heat wave.
Fiona made landfall between Canso and Guysborough, Nova Scotia, where the Canadian Hurricane Centre said it recorded what may have been the lowest barometric pressure of any storm to hit land in the country’s history.
Ian Hubbard, meteorologist for the Canadian Hurricane Centre, told Reuters it appears Fiona lived up to expectations that it would be a “historical” storm.
“It did look like it had the potential to break the all-time record in Canada, and it looks like it did,” he said.
“We’re still not out of this yet.”
A state of local emergency has also been declared by the mayor and council of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality amid widespread power outages, road closures and damage to homes.
“There are homes that have been significantly damaged due to downed trees, big old trees falling down and causing significant damage. We’re also seeing houses that their roofs have completely torn off, windows breaking in. There is a huge amount of debris in the roadways,” Amanda Mcdougall, mayor of Cape Breton Regional Municipality, told reporter.
Storms are not uncommon in the region and typically cross over rapidly, but Fiona is expected to impact a very large area.
Hubbard said Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island still have many hours of strong winds, rain and storm surge to go, and the west coast of Newfoundland would be pounded throughout the day.
While scientists have not yet determined whether climate change influenced Fiona’s strength or behaviour, there is strong evidence that these devastating storms are geting worse.
“She was a wild ride last night, sounded like the whole roof was going to blow off,” said Gary Hatcher, a retiree who lives in Sydney, Nova Scotia, near where the storm made landfall. A maple tree was toppled in his back yard but did not damage his house.
Sydney recorded wind gusts of 141 kph, Hubbard said. In Halifax, 11 boats sank at the Shearwater Yacht Club and four were grounded, said Elaine Keene who has a boat at the club that however escaped damage.
Halifax Mayor Mike Savage told the CBC that no injuries had been reported so far. Quebec Premier Francois Legault said no injuries or fatalities had been reported.
Nasa has called off the scheduled Tuesday launch of its historic uncrewed mission to the Moon due to a tropical storm that is forecast to strengthen as it approaches Florida.
Ater two previously cancelled launch attempts, Nasa is weighing returning the Artemis 1 mission rocket to its assembly site under the threat of extreme weather.
“Nasa is forgoing a launch opportunity... and preparing for rollback (from the launchpad), while continuing to watch the weather forecast associated with Tropical Storm Ian,” it said on Saturday.
The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Ian is due to “rapidly intensify” over the weekend as it moves toward Florida, home to the Kennedy Space Center, from which the rocket is set to launch.
Currently south of Jamaica, the storm is expected to approach Florida’s west coast “at or near major hurricane strength” early next week, threatening storm surge, flooding and hurricane-force winds across much of the state, the NHC said.
On the launchpad, the giant orange and white Space Launch System (SLS) rocket can withstand wind gusts of up to 137 kilometres per hour. But if it has to be sheltered, the current launch window, which runs until October 4, will be missed.
A decision on whether to roll back the rocket to the Vehicle Assembly Building is due to be taken by the Artemis 1 team on Sunday, “to allow for additional data gathering and analysis,” with the operation, if necessary, starting late Sunday or Monday morning, NASA said.
Jim Free, associate administrator for the agency’s exploration systems development directorate, said on Twiter that a “step-wise approach” to the decision to roll back preserves “a launch opportunity if conditions improve,” indicating a launch date before October 5 was still on the table.
If not, the next launch window will run from Oct.17-31, with one possibility of take-off per day, except from Oct.24-26 and Oct.28.
The Artemis 1 space mission hopes to test the SLS as well as the unmanned Orion capsule that sits atop it, in preparation for future Moon-bound journeys with humans aboard.
Artemis is named ater the twin sister of the Greek god Apollo, ater whom the first Moon missions were named.
Unlike the Apollo missions, which sent only white men to the Moon between 1969 and 1972, Artemis missions will see the first person of color and the first woman step foot on the lunar surface.
A successful Artemis 1 mission would come as a huge relief to the US space agency, ater years of delays and cost overruns.
But another setback would be a blow to NASA, ater two previous launch atempts were scrapped when the rocket ex perienced technical glitches including a fuel leak.
The cost of the Artemis program is estimated to reach $93 billion by 2025, with its first four missions clocking in at a whopping $4.1 billion each, according to a government audit.
Florida Gov. Ron Desantis has declared a state of emergency for 24 counties as Tropical storm Ian gathers strength over the Caribbean and is expected to bring heavy rain and hurricane-force winds to the state next week.
Meanwhile, Desantis issued the ordered on Friday encouraging residents and local governments to make preparations as the storm moves toward the state. He has also requested a federal pre-landfall emergency declaration.
“This storm has the potential to strengthen into a major hurricane and we encourage all Floridians to make their preparations,” Desantis said in a statement.
“We are coordinating with all state and local government partners to track potential impacts of this storm.”
The National Hurricane Center said Ian is forecast to rapidly strengthen in the coming days before moving over western Cuba and approach Florida nex t week with major hurricane strength.
John Cangialosi, a senior hurricane specialist with National Hurricane Center in Miami, said it is currently unclear where Ian will hit hardest in Florida and said residents should begin preparing for the storm, including gathering supplies for potential power outages.