Canada Braces for 'Canadian Version of Hurricane Sandy' Come Saturday

Hurricane Fiona, which ripped through Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic earlier this week, has killed at least five people and left more than a million people without power or running water. It is the first hurricane of this year’s Atlantic season and may reach a Category Four level.

A Category Four hurricane can cause catastrophic damage with wind gusts between 130 and 156 mph. According to the National Weather Service (NWS), this kind of hurricane has the capability to knock down roofs, the exterior walls of some buildings, snap or uproot trees and down power poles with power outages lasting “weeks to possibly months.”

Hurricane Fiona is now tracking north, with sustained winds at 130 mph sideswiping the East Coast with waves possibly reaching heights of 8 to 10 feet, and is expected to reach the Canadian Maritimes. Meteorologists are predicting it to be the strongest storm in history for the area.

Incredible photo and significant wave height time series from Saildrone in Hurricane Fiona. Significant wave heights near 50 ft were recorded. pic.twitter.com/l6PQmgNoNm

— NHC_TAFB (@NHC_TAFB) September 22, 2022

The hurricane will transition into a bombogenesis by the time it hits the area. A bombogenesis or “bomb cyclone” is a “mid-latitude cyclone that rapidly intensifies, dropping at least 24 mb (millibar) in 24 hours,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Millibars are a measure of atmospheric pressure.

The state of Maine will experience wind gusts of up to 50 mph and may also experience power outages with five to 10-foot waves a few hundred miles offshore, as the state will experience Fiona in its Category Three stage. The storm has moved about 1,200 miles southwest of Halifax as of Thursday morning and will hit Nova Scotia, where locals have been told to begin preparing for the storm’s destruction, which is expected to hit Saturday morning.

"Every Nova Scotian should be preparing today and bracing for impact," John Lohr, the minister responsible for the provincial Emergency Management Office, said in a Thursday news conference. "The storm is expected to bring severe and damaging wind gusts, very high waves, and coastal storm surges, intense and dangerous rainfall rates and prolonged power outages. The time to get ready is now before Fiona hits tomorrow evening."

Here is the latest update on #Hurricane #Fiona.

Hurricane Fiona has the potential to be a landmark weather event in Eastern Canada this weekend, and we encourage the public to continue to monitor the forecasts regularly.

Read the new bulletins at: https://t.co/QURfkCQp7W pic.twitter.com/RSdj9L75RI

— ECCC Canadian Hurricane Centre (@ECCC_CHC) September 22, 2022

"This could be Canada's version of (Hurricane) Sandy," added Chris Fogarty, a meteorologist for Canada's hurricane center in reference to a hurricane which destroyed 24 states and caused $78.7 billion in damage.

Meteorologists have used weather forecasting models that predict Fiona will bring pressure of 925 to 944 millibars, putting it in the category of a Category Four hurricane as it moves from Nova Scotia to the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

"We need to make sure that there's going to be a center for people to go to prior to the storm because we know that there are different types of housing that are not going to be able to withstand the winds, the flooding, the way other buildings may," said Amanda McDougall, who is the Cape Breton regional municipality mayor. McDougall adds that the area’s officials are preparing for the storm and are working to ensure the residents’ safety.

On Wednesday, the White House approved of a federal disaster declaration for Puerto Rico over the course of the next month after the US territory was destroyed by Hurricane Fiona. The hurricane, which unloaded up to 30 inches of rain in some parts of the territory and cut off access to power and clean water, has spiraled into a Category Four monster.