540,000 lose power as Fiona makes landfall in Canada
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Hurricane-strength Fiona made landfall in Nova Scotia early Saturday and knocked out power for hundreds of thousands in eastern Canada.
Driving the news: More than 540,000 outages were reported in Atlantic Canada, according to utility tracker Poweroutage.com. Almost all of Prince Edward Island's 86,000 customers are among the outages.
- Fiona, now considered a post-tropical cyclone, is a "historic, extreme event" for Atlantic Canada, said Bob Robichaud, a warning preparedness meteorologist with the Canadian Hurricane Centre.
Threat level: Fiona had maximum sustained winds of 85 mph — the same power of a Category 1 hurricane — Saturday morning, with its center over the Gulf of St. Lawrence after crossing Nova Scotia, the National Hurricane Center said.
- It had previously hammered Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic earlier this week, leaving millions of people on the islands without power and causing at least five deaths.
What they're saying: "Across the province, we're hearing reports of damaged trees and power lines as the storm continues to pass through," the Nova Scotia Emergency Management Office tweeted.
- Cape Breton's Regional Municipality Mayor and Council have declared a State of Local Emergency.
Context: Hurricanes are becoming more intense and damaging from human-caused climate change and global warming, enabling them to shed heavier amounts of rainfall and stay stronger further north.
