Hurricane Fiona Aftermath

The Prime Ministers’ visit on September 28th would be a slower day for me, I had only one thing left to photograph, Justin Trudeau visiting the devastation.

I had been working very closely with the great folks at Reuters on many different coverage areas over the past numerous days. Our teamwork was being distributed around the world many times over and it felt great.

One of the biggest memories of this coverage was, somewhere in the middle of this chaos, we were flying high and bam, the question came over a phone call. How are you doing with all this? A mental health check-in, on me. It meant a lot hearing those words. But I was still good.

I started on the 28th by heading back down to the main areas. I visited the 3rd and 2nd coves. The Rangers were securing the areas, only allowing members of the media in along with emergency workers. They were all in high spirits, it was amazing. Despite all the chaos and destruction, people seemed to be in good spirits. We’ll get through this together, was the attitude.

The donations were coming in like crazy. The Lions Club hall was full of donated items, along with a part of the school. Additionally, a third storage area was set up somewhere around Burnt Islands. Newfoundlanders were donating items like crazy and volunteers were struggling to find spots to put it all. The Newfies really came together, it was very heartwarming.

People in need would come to the Lions Club and would be helped with selecting what they need by volunteers. An often comment was, “I don’t want to take too much”, yet the volunteers were desperately trying to find spots to store goods at.

It was a continuation of the day before, where I watched people who were devastated the absolute worst bring coffees to those working on the ground. A situation you’d think should be reversed.

For the most part, those who were impacted quickly found friends or family to stay with. There were 2-3 who were staying in hotels. The Red Cross had booked many more rooms, just in case.

The Salvation Army had a mobile kitchen set up to give away food to anyone who needed it. I was asked twice, are you hungry? Please take some food. I declined. I listened as those who lost everything were declining food, “there is someone more significantly impacted than me that needs it” was the response. Yet this person lost everything.

This was a small rural community where people look out for their neighbors, everyone knew they had a role to play and chipped in however, yet not many wanted support. But not only their neighbours, but others as well.

I had booked my hotel room at Hotel Port aux Basque for 1 night. I was prepared to sleep outside as I had a full set of cold-weather hiking gear and food with me that would keep me cozy for weeks. Every day I was able to rebook my hotel. At one point, I thought I might be using my camping gear. The staff person at the hotel had said, we are booked solid for tonight but the owner said, we’ll find a spot for you and if we don’t, I have a spare bedroom at my house you can stay in. There was a real sense of belonging, even as an outsider. From the moment I ran into the mayor, I felt my role was important to them however I did not want to take up a room that was needed by someone else. The sense of community was unlike anything else I experienced before.

As the day went on, Justin Trudeau arrived. He was to do a tour of the devastation, then head to the Lions Club and end at the Salvation army.

The time had come.

Justin’s track had changed, instead of him walking a certain way the security changed it so he would see the destruction another way. For us media, that meant we’d be photographing him stopping and talking to people with standing non-impacted houses in the background. I didn’t like this, so I adjusted my position to photograph him with the destruction in the background.

My thought paid off. The first person he appeared to come to was Amy Osmond.

My aunt would later say, I saw you on the news. Too focused on the above moment, a TV camera caught my movements from the opposite angle.

After capturing the image I had wanted, I moved my position again, more similar in line with the rest of the media.

The Canadian Prime Minister would tour the area.

As he did, he would speak with those involved all throughout his tour. Brian “Smokey” Osmond was one of them.

As he toured the 1st cove, we photographed his numerous interactions.

From here, it was onto the Salvation Army. I arrived quickly, being the first media outlet to arrive and yet the last to leave the destruction site. After everyone else arrived, Justin Trudeau brought in some donations.

He spent some time with the volunteers and moved on to the Salvation Army where he held a press conference prior to ending the media component of his visit. From here, this would conclude my coverage of Hurricane Fiona.