St. Mary’s Mayor Steve Ryan describes Tuesday night’s events as “a perfect storm.”
After just an hour of sleep, Ryan told CBC Radio that he was devastated to see the town’s fish plant, owned by St. Mary’s Bay Fisheries, had burned down.
“The conditions were just unbearable,” he said Wednesday morning, illustrating a scene of intense fire amid hurricane-force winds in his small N.L. town.
About 20 residents evacuated their homes to stay at the town hall until the early hours of the morning, Ryan confirmed.
The fish plant was the largest employer in the region with more than 300 workers — both from the St. Mary’s area and abroad — during its peak season. The mayor said it provided good, high-paying jobs.
“We had a success story here…. It’s really hurtful,” he said with a shaky voice.
“A lot of people planned their lives around the plant.”
Ryan said the fire flared up Wednesday morning, likely because of continuing high winds. He said it’s now under control.
Winds along the southern Avalon Peninsula gusted as high as 172 km/h on Tuesday. Environment Canada’s wind warning is still in effect for the Avalon Peninsula throughout Wednesday, with gusts up to 110 km/h expected along the coast.
A coastal flooding warning is also in effect for the southern Avalon.
Communication blackout
Ryan and St. Vincent’s Mayor Verna Hayward both said the situation was complicated even further when power went out, taking any available cell service along with it.
Hayward told CBC News that the loss of the fish plant is tragic for her town as well, but people weren’t able to call and check in on each other when power went out as it burned.
“We had no phone communication,” Hayward said. “When something happens like a fire, we don’t have time to go around knocking on doors.… We are at a standstill.”
The St. Vincent’s mayor said cell coverage can be spotty in that area on a good day. She’d like that to change.
Closures and outages
Flooding on Route 90 through St. Vincent’s Beach has forced the road to close in both directions. The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure is advising people to avoid the area.
As of Wednesday morning, 41 customers were still without power from St. John’s to the southern shore according to Newfoundland Power’s website.
In Long Harbour and Coley’s Point, 272 were still without power.
Power was still out for 806 customers on the Burin Peninsula and 1,307 from Sunnyside to the Bonavista Peninsula and vicinity.
The area of Gander to New-Wes-Valley and nearby communities had 1,217 customers wake up to no power.
In the communities of Seal Cove-Wild Cove, Point of Bay, Cottrell’s Cove and Fortune Harbour, 584 were without power at the time of writing.
Glenda Power, the communications director for Newfoundland Power, says most power should be restored by noon N.T. Wednesday.
“Hopefully we won’t have any further outages, but that’s a little unpredictable at the moment given the winds are still high,” she said in an interview on The St. John’s Morning Show.
Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our daily headlines newsletter here. Click here to visit our landing page.
