Florida and Cuba awaiting, 2 dead and “tremendous” damage in Canada
Canada lamented on Sunday “tremendous” damage in the east of the country after the passage of Fiona, while Florida and Cuba were preparing for the imminent arrival of storm Ian.
Fiona’s damage to the Stanley Bridge Marina in Prince Edward Island, Canada, September 25, 2022.
Getty Images via AFP
Fiona, which tore up homes and caused major power outages, also killed two people in Canada, where all hurricane warnings were lifted by Sunday afternoon. As for Ian, it should turn into a hurricane on Monday morning, and become a “major” hurricane on Monday evening or Tuesday morning before reaching western Cuba, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) has already warned. ).
The organization calls “major” hurricanes those whose winds reach at least 178 km/h, i.e. categories 3, 4 and 5 on the so-called “Saffir-Simpson” scale.
Fiona, now a post-tropical storm that weakens as it heads north, battered Canada’s Atlantic coast on Saturday. The toll has increased, the province of Prince Edward Island announcing Sunday afternoon a death, while in the province of Newfoundland, rescuers found the body of a 73-year-old woman, swept away by the ocean on Saturday during the storm.
Some 320,000 people remained without power in five provinces as Fiona knocked down trees and ripped roofs off. Hundreds of employees worked to restore power, while the army helped clear the roads.
“At the end of the day, this will be the storm that has caused the most damage that we have ever seen,” commented Tim Houston, the premier of one of the most affected provinces, Nova Scotia, on CBC News. . “The damage is immense.”
The hurricane had already killed at least seven people last week, including four in Puerto Rico, two in the Dominican Republic and one in Guadeloupe (France).
Ian approaching
Cuba and Florida (United States) are preparing for the arrival of Tropical Storm Ian. The US National Hurricane Center has issued a “hurricane alert” for several areas of Cuba (Isla de Juventud, Pinar Del Rio, and Artemisa). The largest island in the British Cayman Islands Territory, Grand Cayman, also issued a hurricane warning. Ian should be close to her on Monday.
The NHC predicts that Ian will become a “major” hurricane within the next 24 to 48 hours, meaning, according to its nomenclature, capable of inflicting “devastating” damage, damaging houses, uproot trees and disrupt the supply of water and electricity.
Ian should go up, via the Gulf of Mexico, towards Florida which has already begun to take its precautions. NASA has given up the takeoff scheduled for Tuesday of its new mega-rocket for the Moon, from the Kennedy Space Center located in this southern state of the United States.
US President Joe Biden has placed Florida under a “state of emergency”, which allows federal aid to be released, while Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has called on residents on Twitter to “take precautions”. Joe Biden also gave up a trip that should have taken him to Florida on Tuesday.
In various localities across the state, authorities were beginning to distribute sandbags to protect homes from the risk of flooding. “Now is the time to prepare. Don’t wait until it’s too late,” tweeted Jane Castor, mayor of Tampa, a city located according to the NHC on Ian’s trajectory.
gigantic waves
In Canada, the 73-year-old woman found on Sunday afternoon came from the small town of Channel-Port-aux-Basques, in the province of Newfoundland. There, more than 20 homes were torn away by the raging ocean and 200 residents evacuated, according to Mayor Brian Button. The victim had apparently taken refuge in his cellar when the waves invaded everything.
“A war zone,” said the mayor to describe his city. “We have to give ourselves some time. We cannot return to normal in a day”, he explained via Facebook Live, while his city bears the marks of the passage of Fiona: piles of debris, metal barriers twisted by the gigantic waves… Some homes will be deprived of current “for several days”, warned the director of the operator Nova Scotia Power, Peter Gregg.
The Canadian army will lend a hand in three provinces (Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador), at the request of the latter, according to the federal Minister of Emergency Preparedness, Bill Blair.
AFP
You found an error?Please let us know.