Mi'kmaw communities still cleaning up from Fiona prepare for the next hurricane season
CBC
Mi'kmaw communities still recovering from post-tropical storm Fiona are applying lessons learned from last September's storm to preparations for the upcoming hurricane season.
Post-tropical storm Fiona caused close to $660 million in insured damages in Atlantic Canada and caused widespread power outages.
Jeff Ward, a committee member for the emergency management office at Membertou First Nation on Cape Breton Island, estimates Fiona caused over $1 million in damages in his community.
Ward is also the general manager of the Membertou Heritage Park — a space dedicated to the community's history — and said cleanup work is still ongoing.
"I don't know if they'll ever really finish and how we'll ever recover," Ward said.
He said the Cape Breton Regional Municipality was hit hard by the storm and Membertou offered help where it could to nearby communities like Sydney, N.S.
The Mi'kmaw community hosted a warming centre, a Red Cross shelter and its two gas stations remained in operation in the aftermath of the storm, drawing a lot of traffic to the community — something Ward said wasn't planned for.
"The traffic situation had to be addressed immediately because the people were in all areas and all lines and it was just unreal, it was crazy," said Ward.
Now, Membertou's emergency management plan includes a traffic plan.
The plan also makes it clearer to residents what resources are available to them and how those resources operate, as Ward said post-Fiona, there was confusion about some of those facilities.
But he said each storm can present new problems.
"You could have the perfect plan in place … but sometimes you can't predict the future," said Ward.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is forecasting an average hurricane season but a possible El Niño weather event developing in the eastern Pacific and warmer waters in Atlantic Ocean make it difficult to predict what might happen.
Chief Andrea Paul from Pictou Landing First Nation, 135 kilometres northeast of Halifax, said post-tropical storm Fiona caused over $6 million in damages in her community.
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