(Îles-de-la-Madeleine) Like many Madelinots, acting mayor Richard Leblanc had a very short night.
Posted at 8:27
“The winds woke me up at 1 a.m. and I couldn’t get back to sleep,” he told The Press on the sidelines of the authorities’ press briefing early Saturday morning on the devastation caused by the post-tropical storm Fiona in the Gulf of St. Lawrence archipelago.
Mayor Leblanc warned his citizens that “the storm is not over”. The road network is closed to traffic since trees and debris litter the roads in places.
“You are asked to stay at home,” he insisted. The tide is a “source of concern” for the municipality. Flooding is expected.
A handful of victims were evacuated overnight from Friday to Saturday in the coastal areas of La Grave in Havre-Aubert and Pointe in Havre-aux-Maisons. Four emergency accommodation centers spread over the Island are open.
According to Hydro-Quebec, nearly 3,000 homes were without power around 8:30 a.m. Saturday. “The balance sheet will assess from hour to hour,” said his spokeswoman Ariane Doucet-Michaud. Ten teams are on the ground to secure the network. However, it is too risky at this stage to send linemen to fix the network, she said.
“We are concerned about the duration of the sustained winds,” concluded the Hydro-Québec spokesperson.
At the Cap-aux-Meules wharf, fishermen watch their boat from their truck. “I’ve never seen waves like this. There will be major damage,” Stéphane Bourque told us, looking worried.
The water level is very high in two fishing harbours, found The Press in the field.
“The municipality is very well prepared,” assures the interim regional director of the Ministry of Public Security for Gaspésie and the Îles-de-la-Madeleine Félix Caron.
The roof of a church was damaged by the force of the winds during the night. The deputy mayor indicated that it was too early to assess the damage.
“In the islands, we avoided the worst last night,” wrote outgoing PQ MP Joël Arseneau on Twitter.
Most businesses are closed due to the storm.