Fiona in the Magdalen Islands | “No one will get much sleep tonight”

On the eve of the arrival of Fiona, the Madelinots hold their breath

Text: Caroline Touzin
The Press

Photos: Olivier Jean
The Press

(Îles-de-la-Madeleine) Roberto Bourgeois, lobster fisherman, stares at his fishing boat, looking worried.

The Islands, which are right in the middle of the trajectory, are preparing to face winds of 100 to 160 kilometers per hour and to receive 75 to 125 millimeters of rain in total, which therefore includes rain already fallen since Thursday evening. A storm tide will be added to the set on Saturday morning.

“I should have put it dry before, but I still had work to do,” laments Roberto Bourgeois, a lobster fisherman we met on the Étang-du-Nord wharf late Friday afternoon, when t a fine rain was falling on the Magdalen Islands.

With his cotton hood screwed down on his head as the only protection, the Madelinot is busy “tripling, maybe even quadrupling” his mooring ropes.

The lobster fishery ended in July, the swarthy man recounts of a summer spent at sea, but he decided to continue going on expeditions with divers to retrieve lost cages.

It is for this reason that his boat has not yet been stored.

“I hope it will hold up,” he says, changing a damaged rope for a much bigger, brand new one.

Like many, the man was preparing to spend the night in his boat. “Anyone who cares about their boat does that,” he says, despite the risks it entails.

The fisherman is ready to do anything to save his livelihood – the boat is worth $800,000, he points out – while everyone on the Gulf of St. Lawrence archipelago fears the consequences that the tropical storm Fiona could leave in its path.

Winds of 150 km/h

Fiona was supposed to hit eastern Quebec on Friday night, until the end of the day on Saturday. Winds up to 150 km/h, waves up to 6 to 8 meters and lots of rain were expected.

“Preventive visits are carried out in collaboration with the fire safety services, and disaster services or accommodation centers will be made available as needed. Everything is in place to ensure the safety of Madelinots. Be careful, ”said the outgoing Minister of Public Security, Geneviève Guilbault, on Twitter at the end of the day Friday.

On the historic site of La Grave, in Havre-Aubert, traders were preparing for the worst on Friday. Luc Chevrier has put up his jewelry, looking resigned. “It’s the first time I’ve posted since I’ve had the shop,” he says. With his wife, Solange Leblanc, he was emptying his business of its precious contents, multiplying the round trips between his vehicle and the store.

“We risk losing everything,” laments Mr. Chevrier when his business located on the edge of the water cannot be insured against floods and storms. He bought it for over $100,000 8 years ago and has invested some $50,000 in renovations since.

“The more it goes, the more we are stressed,” adds his wife.

The couple fear that the large rocks that have just been installed to limit the erosion of the banks on the historic site of La Grave will shatter its windows and that then the water will seep everywhere. It is that the municipality has recently completed the work of recharging the beach at the historic site; a construction site made necessary to protect the place against coastal erosion and submersion.

Bank protection

Shoreline erosion is a major issue here; a phenomenon accelerated by climate change. In 2020, the mayor, Jonathan Lapierre (now a candidate in the provincial elections for the Coalition avenir Québec), and the PQ member, Joël Arseneau, asked Quebec to provide an envelope of $80 million dedicated to the protection of the banks. for the next 10 years.

“This is the first major test for the La Grave riprap project,” underlines the acting mayor of the Magdalen Islands, Richard Leblanc. This municipal councilor whose “real job” is to be a civil servant with Emploi Québec agreed to take on the duties of mayor after Jonathan Lapierre had decided to try to be elected as a member of the CAQ in the current campaign.

In fact, Mr. Leblanc is an “interim substitute” since another colleague had been designated, but the latter is currently abroad (he is due to return to the Islands this weekend). “I said yes without knowing that I was going to live Fiona “, he says before bursting out laughing.

It wasn’t long, however, before the career civil servant got serious again. “Our teams are ready,” he said. As soon as the emergency plan is deployed, firefighters and public works will work 24 hours a day.”

memories of Dorian

“No one will sleep much tonight,” says Mayor Leblanc, who has very bad memories of the post-tropical storm. Dorian. This storm had wreaked havoc on the Gulf of St. Lawrence archipelago three years ago. “Public works had taken four to five weeks to fix everything,” he recalls. Gusts ranging from 70 to 120 km / h were then recorded. Waves of 12.8 m had been detected by a Fisheries and Oceans Canada buoy off the Islands. Some 5,000 Hydro-Québec subscribers had been without power at one time or another. A total of 43mm of rain was recorded. Route 199 had been flooded and strewn with rocks, sand and numerous debris for several kilometers all over the archipelago.

He is not the only one to fear replaying in the same disaster film. For the past few days, Madelinots have been storming grocery stores to stock up on water and food.

“It’s like Christmas Eve; everyone is stocking up,” says the manager of the IGA COOP in Havre-aux-Maisons, Pascal Thorne. Like several other traders, he made the decision to close on Saturday. “ To Dorian, electrical wires had fallen on the roads, he recalls. We don’t want anyone to take risks, ”he adds.

The manager is incredibly calm, like many Madelinots I met a few hours before the arrival of Fiona. “It’s not our first storm,” they reply when asked how they anticipate the next few days.

“Here, in winter, four days with gusts of wind at 100 km / h, it’s not unusual,” says the acting mayor, who in turn insists that the Madelinots are used to bad weather. .

In the baskets of many customers at the grocery store, cases of beer from the local microbrewery – the aptly named À l’abri de la tempeur – stood alongside bottles of water and cans.

Saturday, on the Islands, is also the opening of the duck hunt. Some don’t wanna leave Fiona spoil the event. “If the weather isn’t too bad, I’m not going to miss this,” says Mr. Thorne, the grocery store manager.

With The Canadian Press