Mi'kmaw communities still cleaning up from Fiona prepare for the next hurricane season

Mi'kmaw communi‐ ties still recovering from post-tropical storm Fiona are applying lessons learned from last Septem‐ ber's storm to preparations for the upcoming hurri‐ cane season.

Post-tropical storm Fiona caused close to $660 million in insured damages in Atlantic Canada and caused wide‐ spread power outages.

Jeff Ward, a committee member for the emergency management office at Mem‐ bertou First Nation on Cape Breton Island, estimates Fiona caused over $1 million in damages in his community.

Ward is also the general manager of the Membertou Heritage Park — a space dedi‐ cated to the community's his‐ tory — and said cleanup work is still ongoing.

"I don't know if they'll ever really finish and how we'll ever recover," Ward said.

He said the Cape Breton

Regional Municipality was hit hard by the storm and Membertou offered help where it could to nearby com‐ munities like Sydney, N.S.

The Mi'kmaw community hosted a warming centre, a Red Cross shelter and its two gas stations remained in op‐ eration in the aftermath of the storm, drawing a lot of traffic to the community — something Ward said wasn't planned for.

"The traffic situation had to be addressed immediately because the people were in all areas and all lines and it was just unreal, it was crazy," said Ward.

Now, Membertou's emer‐ gency management plan in‐ cludes a traffic plan.

The plan also makes it clearer to residents what re‐ sources are available to them and how those resources op‐ erate, as Ward said postFiona, there was confusion about some of those facilities.

But he said each storm can present new problems.

"You could have the per‐ fect plan in place … but some‐ times you can't predict the fu‐ ture," said Ward.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra‐ tion is forecasting an average hurricane season but a possi‐ ble El Niño weather event de‐ veloping in the eastern Pacif‐ ic and warmer waters in At‐ lantic Ocean make it difficult to predict what might hap‐ pen.

Generator planned for store

Chief Andrea Paul from Pictou Landing First Na‐ tion, 135 kilometres northeast of Halifax, said post-tropical storm Fiona caused over $6 million in damages in her community.

Hundreds of homes need‐ ed repairs and Paul said the community is still working with Indigenous Services Canada to get reimburse‐ ments for money it put for‐ ward for the work.

She said her community emergency strategy is still be‐ ing developed, but will include a plan to alleviate stress on emergency manage‐ ment staff and leaders — something Paul said was a problem post-Fiona — and securing a generator for the community store.

"It was awful to have a community store full of fuel that we couldn't access," said Paul.

Pictou Landing was loaned generators from Eskasoni and Potolotek First Nations dur‐ ing the power outages.

Chief Leroy Denny of Eska‐ soni First Nation said his com‐ munity was spared from the storm, which is why they were able to lend Pictou Landing generators.

He said the storm did cause telecommunication is‐ sues for his community of 5,000 people. Denny said he's considering looking at how a satellite-based Internet ser‐ vice could better suit the community's needs during a storm.

Denny said he would like to see a place for people from Eskasoni to go in the event of a storm, which would include public bathrooms, access to communications for updates, or storage for generators for the community to use.

"Instead of just waiting for these storms, we should have money to go to this infra‐ structure," said Denny.