Covering Hurricane Fiona
On October 10, 2022 by jmweb
I had been in Newfoundland, doing landscape photos for an upcoming landscape book I am working on. My trip was to conclude on October 7th as I had to be in New Brunswick to cover the Montreal Canadiens on October 8th. I was to cover the Montreal Canadiens vs Ottawa Senators game on October 6th as well.
During my stay, a fury of activity happened. One of the things I was keeping an eye on was Hurricane Fiona and so was the Editor in Charge of Reuters. We exchanged multiple texts on a plan and the different communities that would be impacted. As the storm came closer, our plan became more concrete.
My first day (September 23rd, 2022) of Hurricane Fiona was covering the newfies (Newfoundlanders) getting ready for the storm to hit in St. John’s. For some of those on the Avalon peninsula, they were hit with 200mm of rain just a week prior from another Hurricane. While Maritimers were getting ready for the storm, the people of St. John’s were going about their usual business. A movie was still being filmed in Petty Harbour. The chips at the local Dominion (Superstore) and Sobeys looked safe with plenty of stock.
As the day went on, I got closer to my scheduled departure of heading to Stephenville, a whooping 8 hour drive from St. John’s or 750 paid km according to the editor. That’s a lot of miles. On my way to the West coast, I was keeping tabs on the local grocery stores and gas stations.
For the most part, things were quiet. None of the grocery stores I looked at on Google Maps were busy, in fact, they were all less busy than usual. Had newfies gotten prepared in the previous days or was this the calm before the storm? I drove across the province, listening to The Weather Network’s great reporting from all over the Maritimes.
On the drive to Stephenville, it was a mix of light wind and rain. There was a brief period where the rain was coming in hard but that was just a single band that only lasted 10-15 minutes. I eventually made it into Stephenville, pulled into my hotel and parked between two bigger trucks. Up to bed I went, expecting things to pick up in the overnight hours.
I woke up the following day, September 24, having had a great sleep. Next page.
