Hurricane Erin over the Atlantic Ocean on Friday, Aug. 22.CSU/CIRA-NOAA/The Canadian Press
A powerful storm tracking up the Atlantic Ocean risks disrupting firefighting efforts in Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia, but officials in both provinces say they are prepared.
Hurricane Erin, which the National Hurricane Centre in Miami said had weakened to a post-tropical cyclone, should stay far offshore on Friday and Saturday, but could bring gusty northeasterly winds across central and western Nova Scotia, where an out-of-control wildfire has forced the evacuation of about 100 homes in the Annapolis Valley. Sudden shifts in wind direction, officials said, can put firefighters in danger.
Rain between 50 and 100 millimetres from Hurricane Erin would have been welcome to help douse the flames, said Bob Robichaud, meteorologist from Environment Canada.
“But it’s not the case.” In the 21 years that he has been a meteorologist, Robichaud said it’s the first time he’s seen a hurricane and a wildfire at the same time.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, Premier John Hogan said Friday that if the storm brings strong winds to the province, “absolutely it will affect the firefighters. Rain will certainly be welcome. Wind certainly will not. And if it gets very bad, of course, we’ll have to pull not only the air assets out, but the firefighters as well. As we’ve said from Day 1, safety is the most important thing.”
As of Friday afternoon, Erin was about 500 km south-southwest of Sable Island, N.S., with maximum sustained winds of 148 km/h.
Jim Rudderham, director of fleet and forest protection, echoed Robichaud, saying it’s the first time in his career that he’s seen a wildfire and hurricane hit at the same time.
But, he said firefighting crews “bend” to the weather all the time.
“It’s some wind, but it’s not hurricane force winds, but it is wind. And it’s when it changes, that it’s going to be a little swirly for a while. So, they’re just accommodating themselves accordingly.”
Scott Tingley, with the Department of Natural Resources, said the Long Lake wildfire is proving challenging to tackle because of factors such as drought, intensity of the blaze, how deep in the ground it’s burning and the remoteness of the area. The wildfire has scorched more than 32 square kilometres of ground.
“We need to see what the impacts of this wind (from Hurricane Erin) through the weekend is going to have,” he said.
In New Brunswick, there are 18 active fires with three of them reported to be out of control with a total of nearly 22 square kilometres of ground burned. Officials in that province did not respond to questions about how the hurricane would affect firefighting efforts.
Back in Newfoundland, Hogan said a wildfire near Kingston in Conception Bay North continued to burn out of control and is estimated at 101 square kilometres.
The wildfire has destroyed about 100 houses and forced 3,000 people out of their homes.
The Mounties in Newfoundland and Labrador said they were patrolling the evacuated areas.
“This includes patrols by boat to identify anyone attempting to access evacuated zones by water,” they said in a news release.
Officials are considering busing people, when the weather permits, to the communities destroyed by wildfires so they can have a look at the damage.
Hogan noted that not everyone whose properties have been destroyed may be able to rebuild in the same place.
“If people want to rebuild, I support that decision, and will support them in doing so,” he said. “But if people make a decision that they want to maybe move somewhere else with family members, move to surrounding communities, those are conversations that we need to have.”
Hogan downgraded the number of structures lost to the Kingston fire to 196 from 203, saying crews have had a chance to closely assess the structures lost.
“That’s probably not to be unexpected, and we’ll continue to make sure we get all that accurate information as we can as we continue to contact people who have lost homes or lost structures,” he said.
Prince Edward Island has not reported any active wildfires, but has issued “a fire closure order” banning all fires including campfires, until further notice.
In the U.S., Erin was forecast to cause possible coastal flooding into the weekend along the East Coast. The National Hurricane Center in Miami reported Friday evening that Erin had weakened into a post-tropical cyclone, with maximum sustained winds of 150 kph, and was located about 605 kilometres south-southeast of Halifax.
Despite being twice the size of an average hurricane, Erin so far has managed to thread the needle through the Atlantic between the East Coast and several island nations, limiting its destructiveness.
Massachusetts-based meteorologist Caitlyn Mench said Friday that Erin’s high wind field caused it to be felt widely along the East Coast: “On a positive note, it passed all offshore,” she said, of the New England area, which experienced some minor coastal flooding due to the storm.
Nantucket’s airport recorded winds of up to 72 km/h overnight into Friday. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority announced Friday that it was cancelling ferry service to and from the Boston area cities of Lynn, Quincy, and Winthrop. Several oceanside beaches along Cape Cod’s National Seashore also closed to swimmers and other recreation due to high surf and rip currents.
On North Carolina’s Outer Banks, waves breached dunes in the town of Kill Devil Hills on Thursday evening, and water and sand pooled on Highway 12.
Although damage assessments were still under way, the low-lying islands appeared to have dodged widespread trouble.
A tropical storm warning was lifted for Bermuda, where residents and tourists had been told to stay out of the water through Friday. Warnings along the coasts of North Carolina and Virginia were also discontinued.
The National Weather Service issued coastal flood warnings for places as far north as the Mid-Atlantic and New England coasts, saying that some roads could be made impassable.
On Thursday night, local news outlets reported that firefighters rescued more than 50 people from cars, restaurants and bars after tidal flooding in Margate City, New Jersey.
Beaches were closed to swimming Thursday in New York City, but more than a dozen surfers still rode waves at Rockaway Beach in Queens.
The Outer Banks – essentially sand dunes sticking out of the ocean a few feet above sea level – are vulnerable to erosion. Storm surges can cut through them, washing tons of sand and debris onto roads and sometimes breaking up pavement and creating new inlets.
The dunes and beach took a beating the last two days, but Dare County Manager Bobby Outten said there have been no new inlets with Erin or significant structural damage to homes or businesses.
“All in all it’s not as bad as it could have been,” Mr. Outten said. “Hopefully the worst of it is behind us.”
On Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head, where sustained winds reached 72 km/h, dozens of onlookers snapped photos of the huge waves crashing into the structure amid driving rain.
“This is nature at her best,” Nags Head resident David Alan Harvey said. “I love this. I love these storms.”
Erin has fluctuated in intensity since forming nearly a week ago but remained unusually large, stretching across more than 965 km.
So-called Cape Verde hurricanes like Erin, which originate near those islands off the west coast of Africa, cross thousands of miles of warm ocean and are some of the most dangerous to North America.
With a report from The Associated Press