STRAIT AREA: With the damage from Hurricane Fiona compiled, the work of restoring services and repairing infrastructure is starting.
In a press release, the Antigonish Town and County Emergency Management Team (EMT) said it met this morning and worked throughout the day helping coordinate clean-up efforts with Public Works Departments from Antigonish town, county, the province, as well as the Town’s Electric Utility.
The EMT said staff will be making contact with the community comfort centres to identity which centres were open today.
“Please note that many streets and roads are still impassable and focus today will be on clean-up,” the EMT said in the release. “Please stay off the roads and approach intersections as all way stops.”
According to Nova Scotia Power’s outage map Sunday night, there were 904 customers in Richmond County without power, 1,153 in Inverness County, approximately 8,672 in Antigonish town and county, and 1,246 in Guysborough County.
In a press release issued this morning, NSP said they are continuing to use foot patrols, drones, and helicopters to survey the damage, and now that wind warnings have been lifted, it’s safe for crews to restore power.
“Given the widespread damage of Fiona, we know there will be customers who face outages for multiple days,” said Peter Gregg, NSP President and CEO. “It’s critical for crews to see the extent of the damage in order to help build the best restoration plans and get the power back on as quickly and safely as possible for our customers.”
In the NSP’s Northeast Zone, which covers Antigonish and Guysborough counties, NSP reported that at the peak of the storm early Saturday morning, winds reached 150km/hr, and high winds continued throughout Saturday which prevented their crews from restoring power for the majority of the day.
Damage in this region is due primarily to broken poles, trees on power lines, downed lines due to falling trees and trees on roads limiting access and making travel difficult for our crews, NSP said, noting that about 90,000 customers have been affected in this region.
NSPI noted that as of 8 a.m. today, over 16 per cent of customers have been restored in the region.
NSP said the most significant damage was in the eastern part of the province including the Eastern Shore and Cape Breton.
At the peak of the storm, NSP said winds reached 140km/hr with winds above warning levels for 14 hours.
Because the high winds prevented crews from restoring power in Cape Breton, NSP said they spent most of the day removing wires from cars and roads, responding to emergency calls and assessing damage on the ground.
With more than 65,000 customers affected in the region, NSP explained damage is due primarily to hundreds of broken poles, trees on power lines, downed lines due to falling trees, as well as washed out roads limiting access and making it difficult for crews to move around.
As of 8 a.m. Sunday, NSP said 25 per cent of customers in Cape Breton had their power restored.
In a press release issued this afternoon, Nova Scotia Health (NSH) said it is working to “provide as much service as possible.”
Later in the day, the province said in a separate press release that most Nova Scotia Health services will operate as scheduled Monday but in areas most affected by Hurricane Fiona, there will be a “focus on the most urgent care.”
In the Eastern Zone, there will be emergency surgeries only.
“Elective surgical procedures and endoscopies are cancelled,” the release stated. “Efforts will be made to contact patients directly to reschedule their procedure however, these efforts could be affected by ongoing phone/network issues across the zone.”
The call was also made for urgent ambulatory care and outpatient clinics only on Monday, and NSH said COVID-19 testing centres will remain open, as well as primary care offices, appointments for lab collections, and diagnostic imaging, but diabetes clinics, adult day programs through long term care, and rehab outpatients are closed.
While the focus Monday will be on emergency and urgent care for some zones, NSH said staff “are expected to report to work as scheduled and could be deployed to other services to assist with care,” meanwhile they reminded the not to travel to a scheduled care appointment if it is unsafe.
NSH said emergency departments around the province are busy and Nova Scotians registered with the Need a Family Practice registry can all use VirtualCareNS at: https://www.nshealth.ca/content/virtualcarens.
“We encourage those Nova Scotians who can wait for care to do so rather than visiting an emergency department,” they said in the release. “We understand that power and network issues are affecting many in the province.”
Those on home oxygen or need power for medical devices, should go to Comfort Centres, not hospital emergency departments in the event of a power outage, NSH said, noting those people should contact their local Emergency Management Office (EMO) or municipality to see where they will be set up in their communities.
Anyone with urgent medical needs should call 911, for general health advice and information call 811, which is a service offered 24 hours a day, seven days a week by experienced registered nurses, and NSH said the Mental Health and Addictions Crisis Line can also be reached 24/7 by calling 1-888-429-8167.
“We request that public who are waiting in traffic for coffee shops, gas stations, etc. to ensure that vehicles are not blocking access to hospital sites,” the NSH noted. “Please do not attend scheduled appointments for care if it is unsafe for you to travel.”
In a press release issued this afternoon, the Nova Scotia EMO said Emergency Health Services received its highest one-day call volume ever recorded on Saturday.
The provincial EMO said it is monitoring the impact of the storm and providing regular updates. The EMO Provincial Coordination Centre moved to a Level 3 activation, the highest level, on Saturday at 7 a.m.
“People who are experiencing issues with their phone service may also have issues dialing 911,” the province noted. “Staff at the Provincial Coordination Centre and other provincial officials are in close contact with Nova Scotia’s telecommunications providers and the federal government to support the providers in restoring services to everyone.”
The EMO confirmed that crews are delivering additional fuel to gas stations.
With provincial government offices in Antigonish, Guysborough, Richmond, and Inverness closed Monday, the NSCC Strait Area Campus has classes cancelled tomorrow.
The province also announced this afternoon that public school classes are cancelled for Monday in the Strait Regional Centre for Education and Conseil scolaire acadien provincial schools (CSAP) in the northern group, including École acadienne de Pomquet and École Beau-Port in Arichat.
“The cancellations are due to power outages and unsafe road conditions, and based on a recommendation from the provincial Emergency Management Office,” the province said in the release.
The province said more updates will be provided Monday, and officials are assessing all schools and ensuring that buildings and properties are safe before the return of students and staff.
The Canadian Red Cross is asking that those impacted by Hurricane Fiona register with them by calling 1-800-863-6582 or online at: www.redcross.ca/HurricaneFiona to ensure people can be reached with information on services that are or may become available.
Bob Robichaud, Warning Preparedness Meteorologist with the Canadian Hurricane Centre (CHC), told yesterday’s provincial media briefing that the hurricane made landfall in Guysborough County between 3 and 4 a.m., before crossing to Cape Breton.
Early Saturday morning, the CHC posted on Twitter that the storm had an unofficial recorded pressure at Hart Island of 931.6 (millibars), making it the lowest pressured land falling storm on record in Canada.
During a media briefing on Sept. 22, Robichaud explained that the Hurricane interacted with a trough of low pressure located over the eastern part of the United States that moved into western portions of Atlantic Canada, resulting in an “extremely strong and dangerous storm.”
With storm surges of up to 2.5 metres expected along the Atlantic coast, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) reported seas from 11 to 14 metres along the Eastern Shore, at Forchu seas were measured from 12 to 15 metres, and some waves over eastern portions of the Gulf of St. Lawrence were higher than 12 metres.
Ian Hubbard, a meteorologist with the Canadian Hurricane Centre, told The Reporter on Sept. 24 that rainfall amounts in most areas were in the range of 80 to 90 millimetres.
According to the CHC, preliminary reports from Beaver Island, off the Eastern Shore, had wind guests at 165 km/h, while the Sydney airport recorded gusts up to 149 km/hr.
When the winds picked up the power went out for approximately 400,000 Nova Scotia Power (NSP) customers.
Troy Webb, with the Department of Public Works, told the briefing that transportation infrastructure was “hit hard” and repairing the damage will be “a very big job.”
The Antigonish Town and County Emergency Management Team (EMT) organized a voluntary evacuation centre for the residents of Indian Gardens whose homes were directly impacted by the last year’s flood as a precautionary measure.
The EMT said it reached out to volunteers with the St. Joseph’s Lakeside Community Centre and made arrangements for the evacuation centre to open for 24 hours. They provided cots and supplies for those who chose to evacuate.
Antigonish Community Transit provided transportation and residents arriving at the Centre were asked to register with a member from the Red Cross.
As Hurricane Fiona moved in, Nova Scotia RCMP said officers responded to hundreds of calls across the province, of which the bulk included calls related to wellbeing checks, stranded motorists, downed power lines, downed trees, washed out roads, and debris on roadways.
During the Sept. 24 briefing, Premier Tim Houston confirmed that he requested military and disaster aid from the federal government.
On Sept. 25, Liberal leader Zach Churchill stopped in Port Hawkesbury on his way to take a tour of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality as the premier did earlier today.
“Governments have to step in times like this, in crises, and do what’s necessary and if that means investing dollars, then that’s what needs to happen,” he told The Reporter. “Long term, the infrastructure impacts are going to be serious and need addressing but we also need to deal with the immediate challenges that people are faced with, whether its lack of shelter, lack of food, lack of fuel, we really need to focus our attention on the immediate needs of individuals and support them to get through the most serious time, which is now.”
Along with power, the premier noted that cellular phone and internet services were also down for many Nova Scotians, including provincial emergency response officials.
“You’ve got to have a communication plan, and you’ve got to have a plan if you know a hurricane is coming into communicate outside of cellular telephones and satellite phones are available in the Emergency Management Office, and those can be used to communicate in times like this,” Churchill noted.
In addition to using his visit to get information, the Leader of the Official Opposition said his role is to get information to the public, and let the government know where the gaps are.
“Time is of the essence, and when it comes to the government’s response on things like this, people can lose supplies very quickly, or are impacted right away, so the speediness and robustness of the government’s response is going to be very important to help people get through this and get back on their feet,” he added.