Halifax community picks up the pieces after Dorian’s destruction
Federal ministers visit, promise disaster relief
HALIFAX— Chainsaws buzzed in the background Tuesday as federal cabinet ministers Ralph Goodale and Harjit Sajjan addressed the damage to Herring Cove, N.S.
Goodale, minister of public safety and emergency preparedness, and Sajjan, minister of national defence, were in the Halifax region surveying local recovery efforts and meeting residents affected over the weekend by what had been Hurricane Dorian.
“The community’s taken a hard hit, there’s no doubt about it,” Tom Reyno said.
No one in his community was left “totally unscathed,” he said. “I’m fortunate enough that I’ve got a large family, and a bunch of friends have come, and we’ve been cutting and chainsawing for the last three days just to try to remove debris out of the water to reduce any floating hazards and get private property out of the water.”
The coastal community of Herring Cove is located south of Halifax, close to where the storm made landfall Saturday night. Dorian barrelled into the Atlantic region as a post-tropical storm, with winds reaching between120 and150 kilometres an hour and rain in the 100- to 200-millimetre range.
As Goodale and Sajjan delivered their speeches and took questions from media on the wharf, community members cleaned debris just a short stretch across the water.
“On Sunday (the day after the storm), it didn’t matter what wharf you looked on, there was a dozen people helping their friends and family,” Reyno said as he prepared to wade into the water to pull out more debris.
Goodale pledged financial support through disaster-assistance programs and described Saturday’s storm as “certainly the second worst” Atlantic storm on record. He said that this soon after the storm hit, downed trees, multiple road closures and washouts remain a real concern.
At the storm’s peak, 400,000 customers were without power in Nova Scotia. By late Tuesday afternoon, that number had gone down to about 83,000.
Military members were called to the province Sunday to help with cleanup efforts. All public schools in the province were closed Monday and Tuesday.
“I think most of us are concerned about the breakwater in terms of preserving or trying to help this cove be protected and be able to handle some of this weather, which will only be more frequent,” said Julia Sawicki, whose home overlooks the breakwater.