We had suffered minor damage during Hurricane Dorian in September 2019 and in January, 2022 a violent storm sent ice floes around all our front yards and the beach road with minor damage to buildings. Hurricane Fiona was a totally different storm.
We began some preparations days before, positioning a number of items in our spare bedroom in case we had to evacuate. Tuning into the weather report late Friday night, the heaviest winds and rain were predicted to land far East of our position. In the middle of the night, we heard some pounding on our front wall thinking siding might be coming off. At 7:10 a.m. on Saturday, I woke up. The pounding was spray from the storm surge rushing over our lawn and slamming into the front of the house. Rocks, boulders and mud covered our front lawn. The mobile home near my West door had flipped over onto our beach access road.
From my East door, I saw one neighbour’s cottage totally destroyed – the wind exploding their front plate glass window and blowing out their back wall.
Two other cottages near the beach had floated towards the marsh. Two other cottages and two trailers had also floated into the marsh and were under three feet of water. The wind and storm surge was unbelievable and high tide was still hours away.
We packed up the car with our supplies and two cats within the hour and first headed to the Ocean Breeze Cottages. No one was there to offer us a Chalet to evacuate to. We then headed East on Route 6 towards River John, steering around fallen trees. About halfway there, we met the Fire Department coming West to rescue someone in a cottage East of us which was surrounded by water. They asked if we were out taking pictures — “No, my wife replied, we are evacuating!”
We settled in with a friend in River John for the next 24 hours (she had a generator). I slept on a couch with the two cats in her sunroom, my wife in one of her bedrooms. On Sunday, we returned to our home, the wind had died, the water had receded, we had a community hand pump for water and a wood stove. Damage to my property consisted of a trench behind my beach rock wall which was 8 feet wide, 4 feet deep and 100 feet in length dug by the storm surge and inundating my front law with sand, rocks and mud.
There were numerous minor damages including our one and only evergreen tree which was knocked down. Some items from our freezer found a home in our friend’s freezer as well. Thus, we began the two weeks with no power. Fortunately, we had booked a Western vacation trip for October 1-10 to go to Calgary, Banff and Vancouver and were able to luxuriate in warm beds, heat and hot water.
Fortunately, there was only one recorded loss of life and few injuries from what was called the biggest hurricane to hit Canada since records were being kept over one hundred years ago. However, the big lesson that was learned was that everywhere people were helping each other with food, shelter, generators, property and tree clean-up. Groups of Mennonites arrived shortly from Manitoba to help clear down trees on people’s lawns in River John. They asked for no money but did offer a Bible and a prayer! Tragedy can bring out the best in people. In River John it certainly did!
