Hurricane-force winds of 110 kilometres per hour have slashed Canada, knocking down trees and powerlines and reducing many homes on the coast to just a pile of rubble in the ocean. Tropical Storm Fiona, which was transformed from a hurricane, forced waves to pound the town of Channel-Port Aux Basques on the southern coast of Newfoundland on Saturday, where entire structures were washed into the sea.
I'm seeing homes in the ocean, said Ren J Roy, Port aux Basques resident and Wreckhouse Press editor.
This is the most frightening thing I've ever seen in my life, he said, describing many homes as just a pile of rubble in the ocean. It is complete and utter destruction. There is an apartment that is gone. Roy estimated between eight and 12 houses and buildings had been washed into the sea.
He said it's quite terrifying.
The Canadian Hurricane Centre said Fiona had the lowest pressure ever recorded for a storm making landfall in Canada.
Meteorologist Ian Hubbard said Fiona had lived up to expectations of being a historical storm.
He said it looked like it had the potential to break the all-time record in Canada, and it looks like it did.
We're still not out of this yet. Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau canceled his plans to attend former prime minister Shinzo Abe's funeral to visit the storm-damaged region.
We will be there to support every step of the way. A missing person believed to have been swept away was yet to be found, with high winds preventing an aerial search, according to Jolene Garland, Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokesman.
A woman was safe and in good health after being tossed into the water when her home collapsed in the Channel-Port Aux Basques area, according to Ms Garland.
The town of 4,000 people was in a state of emergency, as authorities dealt with multiple electrical fires and residential flooding.
Nova Scotia Power president Peter Gregg said unprecedented peak winds had caused severe damage to infrastructure and about 380,000 customers without power.
Weather conditions are still too dangerous for our crews to get up in our bucket trucks, he said.
Fiona has been accused of at least five deaths to date, with two in Puerto Rico, two in the Dominican Republic and one in the French island of Guadeloupe.