Storm Fiona rips into Canada's east coast destroying homes and roads

The storm slams into eastern Canada with hurricane-force winds, nearly a week after devastating parts of the Caribbean

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 centre of the storm, downgraded to Post-Tropical Cyclone Fiona, was now in the Gulf of St Lawrence after racing through Nova Scotia.

After taking its toll on Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, the storm-battered Newfoundland, but is now likely to weaken, the NHC said.

Port aux Basques, with a population of 4,067on 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 Button, 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 hitting us really, really hard right now," Button 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 battered 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, the 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."

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 getting worse.

HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS WITHOUT POWER

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 spotty 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".

Prince Edward Island produces more than a fifth of Canada's potatoes and the island's potato farms, which are in the harvest season, were likely to be impacted by the storm, Hubbard said.

"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 backyard but did not damage his house.

Sydney recorded wind gusts of 141 kph (88 mph), 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.

The storm weakened somewhat as it travelled north. As of 11am (1500 GMT), it was over the Gulf of St. Lawrence about 100 miles (160 km) west-north-west of Port aux Basques, carrying maximum winds of 80 miles per hour (130 kph) and barrelling north at around 25 mph (41 kph), the NHC said.

Fiona is expected to maintain hurricane-force winds until Saturday afternoon, the NHC said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delayed Saturday's departure for Japan, where he was to attend the funeral of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, to receive briefings and support the government's emergency response, Press Secretary Cecely Roy said on Twitter.