China News Agency, Toronto, September 25 (Reporter Yu Ruidong) Hurricane "Fiona" swept across Canada's eastern coastal provinces and parts of Quebec on September 24, causing power outages to hundreds of thousands of households and damage to municipal facilities and homes. .
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has decided to cancel his planned trip to Japan to attend the funeral of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in response to the disaster.
"Fiona" made landfall in Nova Scotia in the early hours of the 24th, and then continued northward.
The weather department had issued warnings of tropical storms or storm surges for a wide area of the coastal province a day earlier.
The hurricane left nearly 420,000 Nova Scotia customers without power, accounting for about 80 percent of the province's electricity utility customers, and high winds and torrential rain hampered emergency repairs.
More than 82,000 PEI customers were without power, accounting for more than 95% of the province's total electricity customers.
New Brunswick Power also reported about 44,000 outages.
Quebec and Newfoundland also reported thousands of outages each.
There are no exact casualty statistics yet.
In Newfoundland, police said, citing unconfirmed information, that someone was swept into the sea by high waves.
Footage on the media and online social platforms showed that the streets of many affected towns and cities in the eastern coastal provinces were seriously flooded, electricity poles were toppled, trees were uprooted, and houses near some ports were washed away by huge waves.
Several municipalities declared a state of emergency and urged people not to go out in principle.
Some affected people were forced to evacuate.
Due to the large-scale impact of power supply, major telecom operators such as Bell and Rogers have confirmed that wired and wireless network services in some areas have been interrupted, causing people to be unable to make calls or access the Internet.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau convened a meeting of the emergency response team to study the response to the disaster.
He told a news conference in Ottawa that at the request of Nova Scotia, the federal government will send troops to assist in disaster relief.
The federal government will also match disaster relief funds raised by the Red Cross over the next 30 days.
Canadian Federal Emergency Preparedness Minister Tony Blair said that disaster relief funds will be provided to the affected provinces and help repair critical infrastructure.
On the basis of his previous plan to postpone his participation in Shinzo Abe's funeral, Trudeau announced that he would cancel his plan to go to Japan and said that he would visit the disaster area when conditions permit.
"Fiona" is continuing northward, and its strength continues to weaken.
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