27 September 2022

2 minute read

North America

Powerful storm Fiona slammed into Canada's eastern fishing and farm industries over the weekend, smashing wharves, food processing plants and barns that will take months to repair, reported Reuters.

One of the worst storms Canada has ever faced left more than one-third of customers in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia without power, swept homes into the sea and left one person dead.

Fishing is a key industry in Canada's Atlantic provinces, which produce some of the world's largest lobster exports.

Fiona destroyed some harbours on Prince Edward Island (PEI), a province on Canada's east coast, and scattered lobster traps for miles, leaving a long clean-up ahead, said Allan MacQuarrie, a director of the PEI Fishermen's Association.

"I'm scared to know what it's going to look like, to be honest with you," said MacQuarrie, who was cleaning up toppled trees at his home and had not yet checked his own crab traps.

"I'll know tomorrow and you'll hear me swearing in Saskatchewan."

FIONA HAMMERS THE FARM SECTOR

Many PEI dairy farmers lost power, shutting down milking systems that run on electricity, said Donald Killorn, executive director of PEI Federation of Agriculture.

The storm disrupted early harvesting of potatoes and other crops, he said. PEI, the smallest province, produced one-fifth of Canada's potatoes last year, according to Statistics Canada, much of which it exports to the United States.

"We see huge destruction in our barns and our storage facilities," Killorn said. "Damage to infrastructure is significant, it's widespread and it's catastrophic."

Source: Reuters