Houses washed into sea as storm batters Canada
Power lines have been downed and houses washed into the sea after Storm Fiona battered Canada’s coastline.
At least one person died after being washed out to sea in Newfoundland, officials said.
Fiona was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm on Friday. Such weather events are rare in Canada, and police said the storm was “like nothing we’ve ever seen”.
The army has been deployed to Nova Scotia to assist with the clean-up.
Parts of five provinces experienced torrential rain and winds of up to 160km/h (99mph), with widespread flooding and hundreds of thousands of people left without power.
Prime Minister Trudeau says the military will be deployed to Nova Scotia, adding: “If there is anything the federal government can do to help, we will be there.”
He has said he will no longer travel to Japan to attend the funeral of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to deal with the storm’s aftermath.
Trudeau convened a meeting of the Incident Response Group on Sunday – the second to discuss Fiona – and promised to “ensure that all necessary support is available” to restore services as quickly as possible.
A 73-year-old woman died when the storm hit Port aux Basques, a small town on the southwest tip of Newfoundland that was one of the hardest hit areas.
“The woman was last seen inside [her] residence just moments before a wave struck the home, tearing away a portion of the basement,” the police said. The coast guard and rescuers recovered her body from the sea on Sunday.
Port aux Basques is “like a complete war zone,” with more than 20 homes destroyed and 200 people displaced, said mayor Brian Button. He added that damages were in the millions of dollars.
Agencies