Canada sends troops to help clear Hurricane Fiona’s devastation

The Canadian military has been mobilised after Hurricane Fiona left hundreds of thousands of people in Atlantic Canada without power and officials try to assess the scope of the devastation.

After surging north from the Caribbean, Fiona came ashore before dawn on Saturday as a post-tropical cyclone, battering Canada’s regions of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Quebec with hurricane-strength winds, heavy rains and huge waves.

Defence Minister Anita Anand said Canadian troops would help remove fallen trees throughout eastern Canada, restore transport links and do whatever else is required for as long as it takes. She did not specify the number of troops that would be deployed.

Fiona was responsible for at least five deaths in the Caribbean. While Canada’s authorities have no confirmed deaths, they have been searching for a missing woman in the hardest hit town of Channel-Port Aux Basques on the southern coast of Newfoundland.