Storm Fiona hits Canada's Atlantic Coast, wipes away homwes

Hundreds of thousands of people are without power as Hurricane Fiona began battered Canada's Atlantic Coast on Saturday.. Parts of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick are experiencing torrential rain and winds of up to 148 km/h (92 mph). Fiona, now a post-tropical cyclone, continued to slowly weaken Saturday evening and into the night as it moved away from the coastal town of Channel-Port aux Basques, in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the storm left a trail of devastation. Some coastal homes in the area collapsed and a few toppled structures fell into the sea or were surrounded by floodwater.

In Channel-Port aux Basques, houses were washed away, Mayor Brian Button said in a Facebook video. Huge waves reaching the eastern shores of Nova Scotia and southwestern Newfoundland caused "severe coastal flooding" at the town, the Canadian Hurricane Centre said Saturday night.Authorities in the province declared a state of emergency for the town amid "multiple electrical fires, residential flooding and washouts" Saturday morning. More than 400,000 customers in Atlantic Canada remained in the dark Saturday night, including more than 290,000 people without power in Nova Scotia and more than 85,000 on Prince Edward Island,

Severe hurricanes in Canada are rare, as storms lose their energy once they hit colder waters in the north and become post-tropical instead. But pressure in the region is predicted to be historically low as Hurricane Fiona hits, making way for a heavier storm. Nova Scotia was last battered by a tropical cyclone in 2003 with Hurricane Juan, a category two storm that killed two people and heavily damaged structures and vegetation. Meteorologist Bob Robichaud warned on Friday afternoon that Fiona will be bigger than Juan, and stronger than 2019's Hurricane Dorian, which also reached the shores of Nova Scotia.