Hurricane Fiona hit Canada’s east coast hard on Saturday, leaving 500,000 homes without power.

Uprooted trees, destroyed homes, damaged power lines… “Fiona has come and left her mark on Nova Scotia and the surrounding provinces,” regional government leader Tim Houston said at a conference press conference held on Saturday afternoon. “It is not finished.”

The violent gusts of wind should persist until late at night, according to meteorologist Bob Robichaud. He noted, however, that “conditions should gradually improve over the next three to six hours.”

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

“Large waves have hit the east coast of Nova Scotia and southwestern Newfoundland, and can exceed 12 meters,” officials noted. Two women were taken to Channel-Port aux Basques, in the province of Newfoundland, according to a police spokesperson. One of the two victims, dragged after the collapse of his house, was rescued and hospitalized, and 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 weather like this before,” tweeted police in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. “It’s incredible. There is no electricity, no wifi, 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 as of 1730 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 down to 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 heavy rain on this British territory of 64,000 inhabitants, Fiona left no casualties 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, power 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, according to US media, 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 personnel 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