Unprecedented?

 

                                           Damage in Port aux Basques NL from Hurricane Fiona

I don't want to say that I have been obssessed with Hurricane Fiona -- it's path, the impact, and the aftermath. Yet that may be an accurate way of describing the way it has affected me. It might be that we recently returned from two weeks in Newfoundland, although an area on the Northeast coast of the province which wasn't affected by the hurricane, other than high winds. It may be because we lived in Newfoundland as my first pastorate with five outport congregations, then later in Nova Scotia serving a large downtown congregation in Halifax.

We have experienced our share of fierce storms while living and spending time near the Atlantic Ocean.

 We lived in Newfoundland forty years ago during the unnamed February storm which sank the Ocean Ranger oil rig. We lost power and woke up the next morning unable to see out of any of our windows because they were plastered thick with snow. Then three years ago we were ensconced on Change Islands in the same area when the tail end of Hurricane Dorian battered the province with wind and the old house we were in shook and rattled and moaned for hours.

There were substantial storms when we were in Halifax, although nothing like Hurricane Juan or the winter blast which was dubbed White Juan which occurred in the months after we left. Two of our young adult children stayed on in the city after our departure and experienced these storms which left the city paralysed and without power. A huge maple tree leaned over onto our recently sold home as a result of Juan, a dilemma we didn't have to address.

None of these storms compared to Fiona which affected all four Atlantic provinces and devastated areas of three of them. As you'll know, houses were swept into the sea, thousands were displaced, and a couple of hundred thousand are still without power days later. At least three people died as a result of the storm.  

This hurricane or cyclone was unprecedented. No one was really prepared for the sheer power of what some are saying is the strongest storm in the recorded history of Atlantic Canada and perhaps in the country. How can people anticipate something like this, even when they've had a lifetime of battening down the hatches? Even oldtimers concede that this is the strongest weather event in their memory. 

On the news some bewildered survivors speak of climate change, and can we doubt that this is a factor? Climate change doesn't necessarily cause destructive weather but it accelerates it, whether drought and fire, or wind and rainfall. 

We hear officials, including the Prime Minister, saying that we're all in this together. Are we I wonder? There are 2.4 million people in the four Atlantic provinces, which is only about seven percent of Canada's population. They will be disproportionately affected by events such as these as weather patterns change. At least we can respond to the needs of our citizens.  We know, too, that poorer countries around the world which contribute relatively little to climate  change are already being heavily impacted. There is nothing fair or equitable about what is transpiring. And eventually we will all be dealing with a radically changed planet. 

Once we get past the "weather porn" of these catastrophic events we tend to get back to our everyday lives, which won't be the case for so many in these four provinces. We will be diverted by Hurricane Ian which has the potential to be the next unprecedented storm.

Here is the weird thing about the reporting from Halifax in the past few days. During a live segment the Global weather guy stood in front of a south end home where a big tree was sprawled along the street. We realized that our former home was in the background -- what trees will be left eventually? 

Do we have the wherewithall to act with determination for a safer and livable world? I pray we do but we're stiff-necked people, to use an oft-used biblical phrase.  

                                                           Halifax clean-up after Fiona