THE fiona stormpetered out and become a post-tropical phenomenon after devastating Canada’s east coast with hurricane-force gusts on Saturday, leaving a woman missing and half a million homes without power.

With maximum winds of 80 kilometers per hour, Fiona hits, this Sunday (25), “northern Newfoundland, southeastern Labrador and parts of southeastern Quebec with strong winds”, informed the Canadian Hurricane Center (CFC, in acronym in English), noting however that “these winds will decrease at the end of the day”.

Two women were washed away in Channel-Port aux Basques, Newfoundland, a police spokesperson said. One of the two victims was rescued and hospitalized, the other is still missing.

At least 20 homes have been destroyed and the area looks like “a war zone”, Channel-Port-aux-Basques Mayor Brian Button said in a video posted on Facebook. According to him, the inhabitants were encouraged to take refuge in a local school.

“Fiona has come and left her mark on Nova Scotia and the surrounding provinces,” regional government leader Tim Houston said at a press conference yesterday afternoon. “It’s not over,” he warned.

As of Saturday evening, nearly 500,000 homes were without power in the provinces of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. Some homes will be without electricity “for several days”, warned the director of the operator Nova Scotia Power, Peter Gregg. “It will take time for Nova Scotia to recover. I just ask everyone for patience,” Houston said in a statement.

192 millimeters of rain and 40ft high waves hit Nova Scotia – where Fiona made landfall on Saturday morning with winds of 144 km/h — and western Newfoundland, according to weather services.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who canceled his attendance at Shinzo Abe’s funeral in Japan to follow the situation closely, announced on Twitter on Saturday that federal officials were ready “to provide additional resources to the provinces”.

“Thinking of everyone affected by Hurricane Fiona. Please know that we are with you,” Trudeau tweeted. Fiona passed through Bermuda on Friday (23), after wreaking havoc in the Caribbean, leaving at least seven people dead: four in Puerto Rico, two in the Dominican Republic and one in Guadeloupe.