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A day after post-tropical storm Fiona left a trail of destruction across Atlantic Canada and eastern Quebec, residents of a devastated coastal town in western Newfoundland learned one of their own was its first confirmed fatality.
Photos posted Sunday from Port aux Basques showed homes and outbuildings smashed or submerged on the shoreline, the result of a storm surge that raised water levels to a record high and swamped a residential neighbourhood on Saturday around 10 a.m."The weather may have cleared, but the situation has not cleared at all," he said via Facebook."This is not a, 'One day, we can all go back to normal.
Amanda McDougall, mayor of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, said almost 200 local residents were forced to leave their homes. She confirmed that the Red Cross was setting up food trucks to help those running out of supplies. "Glace Bay and Reserve Mines look like a war zone," he said of the two Cape Breton communities."Houses with roofs ripped off, trees down .... I know Cape Bretoners will help out their friends and family as much as they can.""The wind was very high coming through here," the 67-year-old tech worker said as he prepared to install some plastic sheathing."It was just catching the peak of the house all night. The force was incredible.
In the provincial capital of Charlottetown, Premier Dennis King said Ottawa had agreed to send 100 soldiers to help clean up the Island. Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair added that Ottawa will work with provinces to determine what is needed for recovery from a financial perspective, especially for Canadians who have lost everything. But he said the immediate need is to provide food and shelter, which is why the federal government is matching donations to the Canadian Red Cross.
In Ottawa, Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said he has been in touch with the heads of Bell, Rogers, Eastlink and Xplornet to ensure they were working to restore disrupted phone and internet services.