Sanctuaries destroyed: After Fiona, Burnt Islands residents look for a path forward

Paula Keeping gazed at the ruins of her home, where she lived for 24 years, hand over her mouth, tears streaming down her face. 

"I lost everything," said the Burnt Islands resident Monday.

"You can't even tell where my house was. There's nothing there, only rock. That's it. There's no foundation there, nothing."

Her three-bedroom bungalow and everything inside has been reduced to a pile of rubble. She's lost family keepsakes, including a ring belonging to her mother, who died 20 years ago. Keeping said she doesn't know what her future holds.

"I don't know where I'm going to start," she said.

Keeping moved into the house when her daughter was nine months old. The sea has touched her home before — but never like this.

On Saturday, a storm surge generated by post-tropical storm Fiona took the house off its foundation and smashed it back down. Keeping's home is one of nearly 100 — and counting — destroyed by Fiona as it ripped through southwestern Newfoundland on Saturday.

The federal and provincial governments have promised help — and Keeping said she's banking on that support as she rebuilds her life. 

She doesn't know where she's going to go but she knows she won't be living on the coast of Fox Roost.

"I don't know where I'm going to uproot and go to, but it won't be here," she said.

Nine-year-old Bentley Taylor said he hasn't felt safe since Saturday's storm.

"It's been really, really scary, and I wanted to leave really bad," he said.

Bentley's mother, Wanda, said she's terrified too.

"I don't think I'll ever feel safe here anymore," she said.