Trailers tossed around like toys. A campground flooded with seawater. Massive chunks of asphalt ripped from the road – all images we are not used to seeing that often in Atlantic Canada.
But at the Ocean View Park in Grand-Barachois, N.B., trailers were lifted up and pushed from the shore by post-tropical storm Fiona Saturday.
Sylvain Gagnon was helping his father clean up after his camper was washed away from its site. Pieces of the deck were spread all around the park.
Gagnon said he had never seen anything like it before.
"No, not here, no. A few years ago in 2019, I think that was the worst we had ever seen, but it was only water and a few things that were pushed around, like docks and stuff, but nothing like this. This is incredible," said Gagnon.
Up the road at the Sandy Beach Tent and Trailer Park in Cap-Pele, many trailers were surrounded by water.
The general manager of the park said they played it safe and asked everyone to evacuate by Friday night.
"We had about four feet of water in our park,” said Bourque. “It was extremely windy still on Saturday around 12 p.m. It was even hard to stand up. To see the amount of what wind and water can do is unbelievable. I have never seen anything like this before and I hope I never do again.”
Meanwhile, it was a day to assess the damage at the Pointe-du-Chene wharf.
Businesses, most closed for the season, were heavily damaged.
Victor Cormier, the wharf's general manager, called the destruction extensive and estimated repairs will cost millions.
I never thought anything like this could ever happen. I guess mother nature teaches us a lesson sometimes. We were ready for it, but it was just the enormity, the intensity of the storm and the wind and the waves and the surge, it was just incredible," said Cormier.
Cormier is hoping to get some funding from the federal government to help with the repairs on the wharf.
