The Aftermath: What Fiona changed forever

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Jordan Heath-Rawlings When a big storm hits, all you are hoping for in the moment is that everyone is safe. Unfortunately, not everyone is. But even when a storm like Fiona passes with minimal loss of life, it’s only in the days following that we come to understand the true scale of its impact. There are thousands of customers still without power this morning across parts of PEI and Nova Scotia. And it’s more than a week since Fiona swept through Atlantic Canada. The tens of thousands of people across Atlantic Canada still in the dark. Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton. Still hardest hit. There’s still no power here and the poles are snapped. The trees have fallen down like domino’s. It’s now closing in on two weeks since Fiona struck Atlantic Canada. If the area got off easy, we would have known it by now. Instead, it is quickly becoming clear that for many areas and hundreds of thousands of people, this storm will leave a mark. Power is still out for many. Governments, including the Prime Minister yesterday, have promised hundreds of millions of dollars in aid. But it may simply not be enough to replace the sheer damage to homes and businesses that have all but being wiped off the map. The infrastructure in some places is just in ruins. It seems odd to say it this way, but the tough part might still be in front of Atlantic Canadians. How do you rebuild from such devastation? At what cost? Where? And how do you live while you do it? And as one reporter put it, what happens when a community that thrives on the sea comes to fear what it can do? I’m Jordan Heath-Rawlings. This is the big story. Greg Mercer is The Atlantic Canada reporter at the Globe and Mail. He’s been covering the devastation left behind by Fiona. He is the reporter I mentioned who posed the question about what you do when the place you love becomes the place you fear. Hi, Greg.

Greg Mercer Hi, Jordan. Thanks for having me.

Jordan Thanks for joining me. I hope you and everybody else out there staying safe.

Greg Mercer Yes, slowly picking up the pieces. And we were lucky. Where we live, we were a little bit removed from the worst of it. But certainly there’s a lot of folks in Atlanta, Canada, still dealing with the follow up from this storm.

Jordan There’s no question, and we’re going to get into that. First, I have to ask you from some of your pieces, you’ve recounted some harrowing tales. I have to ask you to start with Brian Osmond from Port aux Basques. What happened to him?

Greg Mercer Brian shared an absolutely wild story with me. Brian lives in Port aux Basques, Newfoundland, as you said, sort of on the southwestern tip of the island of Newfoundland. And last Saturday morning, when Fiona hit, he was at his house. He had decided to spend the night and not evacuate. He changed his mind as the storm grew worse and the water grew closer and closer as the waves rose to a really dangerous level. He was right on the edge of the cove in Port aux Basques. He decided to make a run for it, and he was at his doorway when a giant wave hit and knocked him down and essentially swept them out to sea. So he narrowly escaped with his life. I mean, he described crawling on his hands and knees underwater as the ocean is trying to pull him out to see his deck lands on top of him. He’s got rocks flying all over the place. He showed me his hands after his ordeal, and they were just black and blue. He had been beaten up by the ocean. The only reason he survived is his brother watched him get knocked down and pulled out to sea by one of these giant waves. And he ran into the ocean to save him, grabbed him by the collar and was able to pull him out and drag him to higher ground. And the two of them said they both thought that Brian was going to die and that they’re still in shock that he was able to survive that experience.

Jordan Wow. And, I mean, that’s maybe the most dramatic story you’ve heard, but we’re now ten days post storm. You’ve been traveling around parts of Atlantic Canada and talking to people. For those of us in the rest of the country who saw the pictures of devastation but maybe haven’t seen the last few days, what’s it like there?

Greg Mercer Right now, there are parts of the region where it’s still very bad, particularly in Pictou, Nova Scotia, and in Cape Breton and in many parts of Prince Edward Island and the southwestern corner of Newfoundland. There’s still a lot of damage, a lot of trees down, a lot of homes that have been destroyed, in some cases, bridges that were washed out that have not been repaired. A lot of people who still don’t have power. Imagine that we’re approaching two weeks since this storm hit. You have no running water. A lot of these folks in rural communities don’t have municipal wells, which means when your power goes out, your water shuts off so they can’t flush toilets. Your food has long since spoiled. You can’t use your cell phone. Imagine the level of frustration among those folks. There are thousands of people still in that scenario in Atlantic Canada. Before we talk about what’s being done to help them.

Jordan Right now, just looking back on the storm itself, how many lives were lost, and what do we know, if anything, about the cost of this devastation? There must be some insurance estimates about just how much has been destroyed.

Greg Mercer Yeah, on the financial cost, some early estimates were that it could be as much as 700 million uninsurable losses. Of course, they believe it could be far more. That is simply uninsurable. That is not covered by people’s private insurance, and that includes things like damage from seawater. There’s a lot of home insurance policies that exempt damage caused by the ocean for a variety of reasons, because it’s considered a high risk area or whatever it might be. Those people are learning that in the last couple of days that they don’t have coverage. They’re going to have to turn to government to try to bail them out, to help them rebuild. In terms of the human cost, we know there were at least three people killed in this storm. One of them was Brian Osmond’s neighbor, a 73 year old woman in Port of Basque. She was in her basement last Saturday morning when she was trying to retrieve some clothes. As she and her husband were evacuating, a giant wave came, smashed through the wall and dragged out to sea, and she drowned. A similar situation happened in eastern Nova Scotia. An elderly man who was too close to the edge of the water who suffered from dementia, he was swept out to sea and drowned. And a third person, a man in Prince Edward Island, was killed by carbon monoxide poisoning. He survived the storm, but he had, like many people in Atlanta, cannon started up his generator because he had no power. And the officials believe that he succumbed because of that generator.

Jordan Those three deaths are obviously a tragedy, but I think looking at the devastation and the pictures we’ve seen, the easy question is how is it not higher? Were we prepared for this? Did the evacuations work? What do we know?

Greg Mercer Certainly there was plenty of warning, right? I mean, they tracked this hurricane for days. People knew well in advance it was coming. What we didn’t know, I guess, is how bad it would be that in certain areas that it would bring this unprecedented storm surge, which means the level of the ocean simply rises because the atmospheric pressure is so low. Fiona recorded the lowest atmospheric pressure we’ve ever seen in Canada, which meant the ocean went to levels we had never seen. That combined with high tide and combined with hurricane strength winds pushed the ocean further onto land than it had ever been in many areas. So, yeah, people had warning, they had noticed. Many people were told to evacuate and did. But there are parts of Atlantic Canada where hurricanes and storms are very common, and people say, well, we’ll ride this one out. I mean, it’s very common in September to have hurricane warnings and post tropical storm warnings in this part of the country. Most of them don’t do anything like this. And so people were expecting more of that. And I think some of them were caught by surprise by Fiona.

Jordan This is probably the million dollar question, but what do we know about why Fiona was so bad? Compared to the typical seasonal storms?

Greg Mercer A number of things. The trajectory, it turned inland at the last moment and it was a direct hit on mainland Nova Scotia and Cape Breton and Prince, Rhode Island. So the direction that often they kind of skip off of Atlantic Canada and sort of deflect and don’t do as much damage. Typically these hurricanes lose a lot of strength as they approach Canada and the water gets colder. They can’t produce as much energy as they did in the Caribbean and they start to slow down. That didn’t happen with the case of Fiona and I don’t have a clear answer on why it didn’t. Just this was an incredibly powerful system and it also was combined with a Saturday morning where we had high tide in many parts of the region. All those things combined just for a historically bad storm.

Jordan In terms of the folks who right now, as you mentioned, in many regions still without power, some without water, what’s being done to help them? And I mean that both in terms of what’s being done to help them be able to rebuild. I understand the Prime Minister on Tuesday was in the area making an announcement but also what’s being done to help them right now? Like where are they, how are we helping them?

Greg Mercer So a lot of those people have moved into temporary housing. Some have just simply moved in with family and friends who do have power. I mean, there are some emergency shelters that are being used just to give people a hot meal in Port aux Basques. There are folks who have been put up in hotels temporarily until they can figure out where they’re going to go. But I think many of them are realizing it’s going to be a long time before this is resolved for them. But on the financial side that both provincial governments and the federal government have committed to giving these people some immediate help, some compensation for hotels if they can’t stay in their home. There’s a federal program that gives people disaster relief. You can apply for it if you’ve had damage to your house that’s not covered by insurance. So those programs are sort of up and running. It is a slow process and slower than some people would like but they are trying to get them some help.

Jordan What do those people do in the meantime? And I mean, it’s one thing to collect the insurance and fix a part of your house. Maybe part of the roof has come off or whatever. But to your point, in places like Port aux Basques, the houses are just gone. They’re destroyed. There’s got to be a long waiting period in between collecting that money and actually being able to rebuild or move somewhere else.

Greg Mercer Absolutely. And for a lot of them, they don’t know where they want to rebuild. That’s a big question for them. But you’re absolutely right. I mean, they may have the compensation available sooner than they might have expected but then what do you do with it? There’s a shortage of contractors in many of these communities because of the damage, such as getting people who are able to help you rebuild or do repairs, is impossible right now. So there’s a lot of folks who feel really lost when you talk to them. They just don’t know what they’re going to do. They don’t know where they’re going to go, and they don’t know how they’re going to pay for it. And you feel for them.

Jordan Will some of these places ever be rebuilt? And again, I’m not on the ground there. I’ve just seen the pictures and heard descriptions from reporters like yourself. But it does look like they’ve kind of been wiped off the map. And I just wonder, in this age of climate change and villages so close to the sea, how do you decide whether or not it’s worth moving everybody back in such a lengthy and expensive process? Knowing how vulnerable these places are?

Greg Mercer I think this storm represents a real turning point in the history of a lot of these coastal communities. I don’t think in most places, people just up and leave, but the folks who are the most affected, if you were to ask them, they don’t want to come back and live on the edge of the water. I think in places like Port aux Basques, there will be areas where you’re no longer allowed to build. Right. The problems will bring in restrictions that don’t allow buildings on the edge of the ocean in the way that they have been for centuries. So I do think a lot of these places are going to look very different when they rebuild. People now know that storms like Fiona are possible and you have to be prepared for it. I think they’re going to have to build flood resistant and hurricane resistant homes in a way they had to think about in Atlantic Canada in the past. So those are some tough questions that communities and at the municipal level and the provincial level are dealing with right now. What about at the individual level? One of the reasons we wanted to talk to you in particular is because one of your recent pieces kind of posed the question, what’s it like to all of a sudden have to live in fear of the sea? After spending your whole life right next to it and loving it and working on it? That’s got to be a really difficult question for these people to wrestle with. What do they say to you? I mean, when you talk to them, you hear the trauma. This is very real for them. They’re still in shock from this. A lot of people who had their homes, just as you said, completely destroyed. There’s nothing left for some of these folks. I talked to a lot of people who had lived in Port of asked their entire lives who say, look, we were born and bred in bad weather. We’re Newfoundlanders. We’re used to storms, we’re used to high winds. That’s not something that scares us. But Fiona, they said, within a league of its own, that changed everything and we cannot go back to living the way that we were. They said, now when we have storm warnings, you’re going to be thinking about Fiona. That’s a significant statement in a place like Port aux Basques where people have lived on the edge of the ocean for generations. I talked to a lot of seniors in Port of asked me who said, look, we don’t care if there’s compensation or not. We are not coming back. We will never live here again. We will never feel safe living on the edge of the ocean. I guess after you’ve been through that, where you’ve seen your neighbor’s home destroyed, where your neighbors in some cases were killed by the storm and other people narrowly escaped with their lives, you don’t want to go through that again. And I completely understand that sentiment.

Jordan Often, I think in the time leading up to these storms, or even in the two or three weeks afterwards, there’s kind of this discussion of like, this was a once in a century event, or this was the worst storm ever possible. And I don’t know about you, but I’d love to hear about the people you’re talking to. Is there a feeling that this is less of a like, oh, it’s once in a century storm and now just like the realization that this could happen anytime?

Greg Mercer Yes. I didn’t encounter one person who said, well, it’ll be another 100 years before we see a storm like this. Not a single person. Everyone raised climate change. When you talk to them in the aftermath of the storm, they all believe that these storms are becoming more frequent, more severe, more violent, and they are concerned about the future. There’s no one doubting that these storms are going to become a more common part of life for Atlantic Canadians. And they say this, we need to start adjusting the way we live accordingly.

Jordan I also just want to ask about the people who are using those shelters right now or who are in temporary housing. I’ve seen some reporting from all the provinces about just trying to figure out how long it might take until power is restored everywhere. I mean, as you mentioned, we’re closing in on two weeks now. Do we have any idea? Is this just such a rural issue in so many places that they just can’t figure it out?

Greg Mercer Well, I think the scale of the damage is so great that there’s just so much of the power grid has to be rebuilt. Right. And we’re talking in parts of Cape Breton or Pictou County, where there’s an awful lot of trees, an awful lot of wires. It’s like rebuilding an entire power grid. It just takes an incredible amount of time. They’re working around the clock to get power back to these people. And certainly hundreds of thousands of people who lost power in the first few hours of the storm, had it back within a day or two, but there are still thousands without. I think it’s going to be a while yet. There’s still military on the ground helping people clean up. There’s still homeowners who have trees down on their properties, who are trying to get help, who are on a list to have crews come and help them clear some of that stuff. But people need to understand the scale of the destruction is unprecedented and it’s going to take a long time to clean it all up.

Jordan What should our listeners and the rest of Canada know about what’s needed or what kind of things they can advocate for? As and this happens, a natural disaster hits, the immediate devastation makes all the news reels. And then even after their stories like this about what people need, you’re telling me it’s going to be weeks and months, people are going to probably move on. What does Atlantic Canada need to have happen?

Greg Mercer Well, I’d say that they need people to continue to support organizations like the Red Cross. The Red Cross are doing a lot of the work in terms of the housing people, getting them food, getting the basic essentials that they need to get through this. And those donations are being matched by the federal government. So it’s been a lot of help from the Red Cross for people here. And I think that’s probably the biggest thing. I think there’s a lot of people who simply don’t know where to go and where to turn. And organizations like the Red Cross are helping them through a very difficult time.

Jordan Last question for you. What will your beat be like in the next few weeks? What kinds of stories are you looking to tell out of this? I know something like this can kind of take over a reporter’s life in the aftermath.

Greg Mercer Yes. I’ll be looking to kind of the communities that are wondering about the what now? Right. Of course there’s the immediate stuff, the immediate clean up effort, but I’m also wondering about places that are struggling with how do we rebuild? There are parts of Prince Edward Island where major pieces of infrastructure, major pieces of their tourism landmarks have been destroyed, like the sand dunes. And Cavendish Beach, world famous beach, simply washed away, a lot of cottages destroyed, a lot of homes that are gone. And for an island that’s so dependent on tourism, what does that mean? There’s a lot of communities like that. They’re trying to figure out, where do we go now? And I think that’s kind of where the reporting is going to turn, is looking ahead as people try to figure this out for the long term.

Jordan We will hopefully check back in with you as that happens so this doesn’t slip. Greg, thank you again for joining us. Stay safe out there while you’re traveling around.

Greg Mercer My pleasure. Thanks, Jordan.

Jordan Greg Mercer, Atlantic Canada reporter at the Globe and Mail. That was the big story. For more big stories, you can go to the Bigstorypodcast CA. You can hit episodes and see, I think, just about everyone we’ve ever done. You can also talk to us on Twitter at The Big Stories FPN or via email. Hello at thebigstorypodcast CA. If you are listening to this in a podcast player, make sure you’re subscribed Tribe or followed or whatever it is they tell you to do. And if you’re kind, leave a rating and a review. Thanks for listening. I’m Jordan Heath-Rawlings. We’ll talk tomorrow.