Trail man feels impact of Hurricane Fiona
A trail man remains emotional months after the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona.
Most are familiar with Mauro Corazza’s friendly face from Ferraro Foods in downtown Trail, but just over two months ago, Corazza traveled from Trail to Cornwall, Prince Edward Island (PEI) to visit family, just days after the devastating hurricane had hit land (September 24).
Corazza moved to PEI in 1992 and since joining Trail he has come back every year to see his daughters and celebrate his grandson’s birthday.
“I’ve never experienced a storm or hurricane like this in all the years I’ve lived there,” Corazza added. “Hurricane Juan was mild compared to what Fiona did. Prince Edward Island is not the same island as it used to be.”
Corazza expected damage on his flight, as Fortis workers from Quebec, Ontario and Alberta and Army personnel shared the same flight, but was surprised at the extent.
“When I went to get my taxi, reality hit me,” Corazza recalls. “It was total darkness. The only lights you could see were the cab lights.”
The storm caused major flooding in PEI, as well as the Magdalen Islands of Quebec, southeast New Brunswick, northeast Nova Scotia, and southern Newfoundland. Thousands of trees were felled and uprooted in most of PEI and the Lake Provinces.
Telephone poles lay scattered along the North River Causeway as vehicles drove through the fallen poles and wires.
“I couldn’t believe what I saw,” Corazza said. “Everything was black, all I could see were downed telephone poles, transformers on the freeway, cables everywhere, and uprooted trees.”
Corazza’s family had weathered the 170 km/h winds of Hurricane Fiona, a large, powerful and destructive Category 4 Atlantic hurricane that was the costliest and most intense tropical or post-tropical cyclone to strike Canada on record.
“We were without power for 11 days,” Corazza said. “The population of Prince Edward Island is about 120,000 people and there were about 110,000 customers without power.”
Corazza set up an outdoor kitchen in his ex-wife’s house with a Coleman stove, coolers, candles and lanterns. He spent all day cleaning up the yard, hand sawing several fallen trees and branches, and collecting other debris blown in by the strong winds.
Despite the devastation, and to Corazza’s relief, his family escaped relatively unscathed. It’s not the first time they’ve weathered storms and hurricanes, but Fiona was one of the worst.
“For some unknown reason, the eye of the storm was a mile wide, with 180-200 km winds, and when it made landfall it was like, ‘I’m tearing you apart!’ and that’s what it did.”
Gas stations ran out of gas, shops were closed until power was restored, but then they soon ran out of supplies, fishermen lost their boats and their livelihoods, quays and houses capitulated to the raging waves.
But despite it all, Corazza was struck by how the communities came together to help one another. Community centers opened so residents could shower, volunteers provided hot dinners, and neighborhoods helped others hardest hit.
This year, Mauro was there 31 days, spending 29 of those days helping with the ongoing cleanup.
“After day 29, I said to my daughter, ‘That’s it, I’m done. I can’t help it. I was drained emotionally, physically and mentally.”
Even after Corazza returned to Trail, he still gets emotional looking at the pictures and videos of the violence of Hurricane Fiona.
“It finally worked out as an adult, and sometimes when I look at her and remember, I start crying.
“This is the first time a hurricane has done this to me.”
The wildness of Fiona
Fiona had wind gusts of 180 km/h (111 mph) in Arisaig, Nova Scotia with a record height of 2.73 meters (before waves) in Channel-Port aux Basques, Newfoundland.
Fiona left more than 500,000 customers without power, including 95 percent of PEI customers and 80 percent of all Nova Scotia customers.
A woman from Port aux Basques was killed when her house was destroyed and she was swept into the sea; another person died from carbon monoxide poisoning while operating an electrical generator in PEI.
Another man in Lower Prospect, Nova Scotia was washed at sea and presumed dead.
Teacup Rock, a rock formation and local tourist attraction on the coast near Thunder Cove, PEI, was destroyed after Hurricane Fiona.
Fiona also caused severe erosion in the province’s dune system, particularly in PEI National Park.
city of the track
