Hurricane Fiona hit the east coast of Canada on Saturday, leaving 500,000 homes without power.

Uprooted trees, destroyed homes, damaged power lines… “Fiona came and left her mark on Nova Scotia and the neighboring provinces,” said the head of government of this region, Tim Houston, during a conference release granted this Saturday afternoon. “It is not finished.”

Violent gusts of wind are expected to persist overnight, according to meteorologist Bob Robichaud. He noted, however, that “conditions should gradually improve over the next three to six hours.”

According to Canadian authorities, Fiona, downgraded to a post-tropical storm, was still causing sustained winds of 120 km / h at 1700 GMT and moving at a speed of 37 km / h towards the northeast.

“Large waves are hitting the east coast of Nova Scotia and southwestern Newfoundland and could exceed 12 meters,” officials noted. Two women were taken from Channel-Port aux Basques in the province of Newfoundland, according to a police spokesperson. One of the two victims, dragged after the collapse of their house, was rescued and hospitalized, the other is still missing.

– ‘We are with you’ –

“Thinking of everyone affected by Hurricane Fiona. Know that we are with you,” tweeted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, announcing that federal officials were ready “to provide additional resources to the provinces.”

“We have never seen such weather conditions before,” tweeted police in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. “It’s unbelievable. There is no electricity, there is no wifi, there is no network”, confirmed the mayor of the city, Philip Brown, in an interview with the public channel Radio-Canada. “A lot of trees have fallen, there is a lot of flooding on the roads,” he added.

Operator Nova Scotia Power, which supplies the Fiona-affected province of Nova Scotia, reported more than 384,000 customers without power at around 5:30 p.m. GMT. In the other two hardest-hit provinces, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, operators reported 82,000 and 44,000 homes without power, respectively.

– “Nothing serious” in Bermuda –

Fiona passed as a Category 4 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson scale of 5) about 100 miles west of Bermuda yesterday after leaving a trail of destruction across the Caribbean. With gusts of up to 160 km / h and torrential rains on this British territory of 64,000 inhabitants, Fiona did not cause any victims or significant damage.

According to the energy operator Belco, 15,000 of the 36,000 homes were without electricity yesterday afternoon. In many areas, the company adds, light was restored quickly.

Residents posted photos of downed power lines and some flooding on social media.

Fiona killed four people in Puerto Rico earlier this week, US media reported, while one death was reported in the French overseas department of Guadeloupe and two in the Dominican Republic.

In Puerto Rico, which is still trying to recover from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria five years ago, US President Joe Biden has declared a state of emergency. In addition, FEMA, the US federal disaster management agency, plans to send hundreds more of its staff to the island, which has suffered from power outages, landslides and floods. .

In the Dominican Republic, President Luis Abinader has declared a state of natural disaster in three eastern provinces of the territory.

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© Agence France-Presse