Storm keeps home in Canada, Trudeau posts Army: ‘It’s getting worse’

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau canceled his trip to Japan to attend the funeral of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday due to the gravity of the situation. “It’s getting worse,” Trudeau said, “we’re having more and more severe storms, and they’re getting more and more frequent. Every few years we now have a storm that we’d only have once every 100 years. The military has been ordered to help clean up,” Trudeau said.

Fiona bombed the beaches of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island in full force on Saturday. A mixture of raging waves, storms sometimes reaching hurricane strength, and torrential rain hit coastal towns like Port-au-Pasques with full force, as the waves washed away entire wooden houses.

It is said that at least twenty homes in Port au Basque have been destroyed. A state of emergency was declared in the town. “Whole streets are gone,” journalist René J. Roy told CBC Canada.

Across the coastal region, roofs were uprooted, trees uprooted, floods short circuits and fires. Power lines in the area have exploded, leaving more than half a million homes without power.

By the time Fiona reached the Atlantic coast of Canada, the storm had already weakened. At the start of the week, it was still a full-blown hurricane across the Caribbean. In Puerto Rico, the electricity has been completely cut off. US President Biden declared a state of emergency for the American island. At least five people were killed in the Caribbean.

Fiona had weakened on Saturday but still had severe gale force, which was enough to wreak havoc in Canada. On Sunday, the storm weakened further and moved to open waters in the north, where it caused no further damage.

Storms also haunt the other side of the American continent. Japan was hit by Typhoon Nanmadol and Talas last week, and the Philippines braced for the arrival of “super typhoon” Noru on Sunday. Typhoon (known in the Philippines as Karding) suddenly intensified on Sunday morning, and will pass until Monday on the main island of Quezon, where the highest state of readiness was declared.