Atlantic Canada reels from Fiona; Trudeau cancels Japan trip

Atlantic Canada was reeling Sunday after the downgraded Hurricane Fiona swept away houses and cut off power to thousands of people across several coastal provinces.

The powerful storm, downgraded to a tropical cyclone after decimating several Caribbean islands as a fierce hurricane, hit Canada’s Atlantic coast in early-Saturday darkness with hurricane-strength winds, rains and waves, and washed one woman out to sea.

Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Quebec were all beginning to assess damage and clean up on Sunday, but officials said it would take months to get back to normal. The federal government sent in the military to help remove fallen trees, restore transportation links and engage in other recovery efforts, Defense Minister Anita Anand said. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau canceled his trip to Japan to attend funeral services for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, CBC News reported.

Authorities recovered the body of a 73-year-old woman who had been swept away and declared missing Saturday when a giant wave smashed her home in the southern Newfoundland coastal town of Channel-Port Aux Basques.

Residents had seen her in her house moments before the wave struck at 10 a.m. Saturday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) of Newfoundland and Labrador said. It was too dangerous to search immediately, but police found her body in the water just before 4 p.m. Sunday, retrieving her with help from the Canadian Coast Guard and search-and-rescue teams from neighboring towns.

The lights were out for more than 211,000 customers of Nova Scotia Power, as well as 81,000 customers of Maritime Electric, or 95% of those on Prince Edward Island, and more than 20,600 New Brunswick homes and businesses. Also in Nova Scotia, more than 415,000 customers of Nova Scotia Power, or about 80% in the province of the nearly 1 million-population province, were affected by outages on Saturday, AP said, but the provincial government said on Sunday that Nova Scotia Power had since restored power to more than 241,000 customers.

Many schools were closed for Monday and Tuesday on Prince Edward Island and elsewhere, as the province awaited more than 100 military personnel to arrive and help clear debris.

“The magnitude and severity of the damage is beyond anything that we’ve seen in our province’s history,” Prince Edward Island Premier Dennis King said, adding that recovery over the next several days and weeks would take a “herculean effort by thousands of people.”

With News Wire Services