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notes from PEI regarding hurricane Fiona [1]
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Date: 2022-09-25
the calm after the storm
welcome to my first diary.
as way of introduction, my wife and i are recent transplants to PEI in Atlantic Canada, and even more recently transplanted to the seaside city of Summerside.
this was our first hurricane.
primary concerns during the overnight storm were the windows and the roof. in our previous house, it took a year from ordering to install for new windows, due to pandemic supply issues. how people who need windows now are going to get them in prior to winter, i do not know.
we endured a really stressful night. about 5 hours of 90 mph wind gusts, with the house shaking, the attic door getting sucked up into the attack, and my wife and i almost getting seasick from the motion.
every so often, i could feel the pressure drop briefly. it was eerily quiet for a few seconds, then BOOM the wind and driving rain returned noisily and violently.
we made it through. no broken windows, no roof damage, only minor things here and there.
and wow are we fortunate.
my wife had to go to another part of the island this afternoon, and she reported what she saw. so. much. devastation. glorious, old trees uprooted. trees on houses. missing roofs. a lonely shed in the middle of the massive Cavendish parking lot. where did it come from?
i had visited scenic Stanley Bridge and North Rustico only last week; the photos i see now are heartbreaking.
we lost power early saturday morning. it came back just an hour ago, meaning we were without for about 42 hours. and apparently we are well ahead of the game. PEI has some 86k power customers. 82k lost power. last i checked, 81k were still without.
a brief shoutout to Summerside: the city owns its own utility. there’s a windfarm and a large solar array that should be up and running next year. 46% of the city’s usage is from the windfarm. and i have to think that the smaller grid helped us get power back sooner than the remainder of the island.
in the neighborhood
for our own part, we were partially prepared. we bought a house w/ a wood burning stove. we have ample dry food in stock. we decided to not buy on the waterfront.
but we could have been better prepared. storm shutters would have gone a long way to making the night less terrifying. a standby generator just climbed to the top of my improvements list. and how on earth did i run out of AA batteries?
my thoughts tonight are for neighbors and everyone else across the island. and to all those affected in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland/Labrador, New Brunswick, and Quebec.
we all know the storms are only going to get worse. this was a good lesson in getting prepared. stay safe.
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[1] Url:
https://dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/25/2125250/-notes-from-PEI-regarding-hurricane-Fiona
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