East Coast mops up as ‘weather bomb’ sees roads flooded, buildings battered
HALIFAX — The weather bomb that went off in the Maritimes late Thursday and kept detonating early Friday left plenty of ugly fragments.
Work crews fanned out across the region to deal with the mess left behind by hurricane-force winds, flooded coastal roads and downed power lines that left more than 280,000 utility customers in the dark — most of them in Nova Scotia, the province that endured the strongest winds.
The brawniest gusts were recorded in Cape Breton, where a 170-kilometre-per-hour blast streaked through the rural area of Grand Etang, known for powerful winds.
In the Halifax area, which weathered its share of power outages, siding was ripped off homes, limbs were torn from trees and the roof was ripped from at least one home.
Dominic Fewer of Nova Scotia’s Emergency Management Office said some roads were washed out and others littered with rocks and debris caused by storm surge and heavy rains.
In New Brunswick, crews cleared away mounds of snow that began piling up when the slow-moving, low-pressure system moved into the province Thursday afternoon. The heaviest snowfall was recorded at Pokemouche, which was buried under 58 centimetres, while Big River nearby got 50 centimetres of snow. Fredericton reported 25 centimetres by early Friday.
The president of NB Power said it will be late today before all power is restored across the province. Gaetan Thomas said the number of customers affected by Thursday’s storm peaked at 19,000 Friday morning.
“It took quite a while to get the snow removal into certain areas,” he said. “The conditions along the coast ... you couldn’t see anything.”
In Bathurst, where they were digging out from under 50 centimetres of snow, plows were still trying to clear driveways and parking lots well into Friday. “We got all that snow and freezing rain too,” said Roger Arseneault, who was working at the front desk at the Atlantic Host hotel. “It’s not safe to go on the roads. It’s still blowing hard out there and the visibility ain’t the best.”
In Shelburne, along Nova Scotia’s southwestern shore, the wind tore off a big section of a community centre’s roof. As well, the town’s sturdy armoury — built from granite — was damaged by storm surge, as was the town wharf. Pictures on Twitter showed scaffolding from the historic Lunenburg Academy in a heap on the ground as winds roared around it.
Along Nova Scotia’s eastern shore, massive waves pounded the coast, including the Lawrencetown Beach area, famous as a surfing mecca.
Surfer Tim Adham from Dartmouth, N.S., said no surfer would risk such chaotic seas. “Insane,” Adham said. “Super dangerous. Death.”
The storm closed schools for a second consecutive day in parts of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and P.E.I., and was hampering air travel and ferry service in several areas.
The number of Nova Scotia Power customers still in the dark had dropped to 31,000 by Friday evening, with power for most homes and businesses expected to be restored later in the night or today in more remote areas.
Jason Mew, of Nova Scotia’s Emergency Management Office, said the full extent and cost of the damage to provincial infrastructure would not be known until early next week.
The U.S. East Coast on Friday was also digging out from a massive winter storm that brought nearly a metre of snow, hurricane-force winds and coastal flooding a day earlier. At least 10 people died in weatherrelated accidents, including a 13year-old girl who was sickened by carbon monoxide in an apartment in New Jersey.
Forecasters predicted strong winds and record-breaking cold air to hang around through the weekend from Portland, Maine, to Washington, D.C.
Thursday’s storm caused school and business closings, hundreds of airline and rail service cancellations and thousands of utilities outages.
Flights resumed at airports along the East Coast on Friday.
Massachusetts officials said the storm caused more than one million gallons of untreated sewage to spill into Nantucket Harbor after a huge sewer main break. In Gloucester, north of Boston, about 50 cars were destroyed in a school parking lot after a storm surge submerged the lot.