FOG BLOG HURRICANE FIONA LOG: FIONA HAS MOVED OUT , SLOW CLEANUP IN ATLANTIC CANADA BEGINS!

Atlantic Canada begins long cleanup after Fiona leaves 'unprecedented' trail of destruction There's trees down everywhere. Roofs blown off people's houses and businesses and some community infrastructure' It will take several months for Atlantic Canada to restore critical infrastructure after the powerful storm Fiona left an “unprecedented” trail of destruction, officials said on Sunday, as crews fanned out in five provinces to restore power and clean up fallen trees and debris. “The difference between them was that Fiona was huge in scale,” said Carmen Hartt, a meteorologist at the Canadian Hurricane Center in Dartmouth, N.S. “It covered from New Brunswick to Newfoundland, like with this rain and wind at the same time, so I think in terms of just the impacts, it’s the worst tropical system to affect Canada in a generation.”

By the time the Hurricane Fiona made landfall, it had already been recategorized as a post-tropical storm, but it made little difference: The breadth of the damage to Canada’s Atlantic coast — where houses were swept out to sea, roads were washed away and numerous trees felled — has not been seen before.

Bill Blair, federal minister of emergency preparedness, said the storm was “without precedent in our experience, and it is concerning because we’re still early in the hurricane season. I’m not an alarmist, but I think it’s important that we be well prepared.”

Blair said the sheer size of the area hit by winds and rain differentiates this storm: Labrador and Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Quebec were all hammered in places. “There’s been an awful lot of damage,” he said in an interview. “There’s trees down everywhere. Roofs blown off people’s houses and businesses and some community infrastructure.”

The good news, he said, was that major transportation infrastructure — from the Confederation Bridge and Canso Causeway to many airports and ferry facilities — was not severely damaged.

No estimate of the dollar value of the damages, but Transportation Canada planes were surveilling the region and Canadian Armed Forces had been deployed. Meanwhile, the storm winds had diminished significantly, and it was moving out to sea above Labrador.

Some of the worst damage occurred in Port aux Basques, N.L., where the storm surge unluckily coincided with a high tide and swept whole houses and buildings out to sea. Blair also said an “auberge” in the Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Que., as well as countless fishing buildings located along the coast throughout the region were destroyed.

Nova Scotia requested the troops and machinery to clear debris Saturday, “and we said yes, and so they’re being deployed today,” Blair said. Other provinces are also in discussions about federal aid, he said.

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“We’re hearing from a lot of people whose homes have been damaged, and from mayors reporting, significant impacts on their communities,” said Blair. “We’re prioritizing hydro restoration, making sure everybody is safe, and that people have access those critical services that they need for health and food, and utilities.”

There was no estimate of the dollar value of the damages, but Transportation Canada planes were surveiling the region and Canadian Armed Forces had been deployed. Meanwhile, the storm winds had diminished significantly, and it was moving out to sea above Labrador.