Hurricane Igor, You’re a Bastard

I don’t think I’m particularly fond of Igor.

On Tuesday, September 21, Newfoundland got hit with one hell of a storm. I remember seeing a quick blip about the whole thing on the news the night before, and casually mentioned it to Joanne. Considering the SHEER PANIC AND MAYHEM that resulted from Hurricane Earl hitting Nova Scotia, I figured the lack of build-up meant nothing serious would arise.

(The last bit of this footage is siiick.)

Even in the early afternoon when I first started hearing about the shit going down, I didn’t take it seriously. Then my friend was evacuated from her home in Clarenville because her house was in a direct flood path, and roads started washing out all over the place and sweeping small buildings with them. Busy streets were turned into rushing rivers.

Then businesses started shutting down all over the place in St. John’s, trees falling, power outages. Several communities declared a state of emergency. Two days later, homes are still without electricity: this is a BIG deal, people. Newfoundland is built for extreme weather, we rarely lose power. Other places are running out of food and water. My cousin Nancy is held up in Glovertown and staying at Noah’s on the Point because the Trans Canada Highway is out. For reals.

(One of the busiest areas in St. John’s.)

Most people were content enough to sit at home drinking and playing card games; others had trees crashing onto their vehicles and their homes being destroyed by flood damage. My household apparently only lost a garbage can. A candlelit vigil will be held.

Alright, so it wasn’t a Category 4, and Newfoundland is usually pretty fortunate when it comes to this kinda thing, but damn it made me all kinds of sad to see my dear city being bruised and battered by Igor. And seriously menacing name for a hurricane, right? I can just picture that sassy, grey-eyed son of a bitch wielding a club and smashing my province. I’ve probably had too much to drink.

Actually, just like this guy. Image by Doc Adams.

Actually, just like this guy, taken by Doc Adams.

Anyway, it was strange seeing my island put into such a state of chaos. Colin Peddle was brave enough to face the weather to take some of the best shots I’ve seen around St. John’s, check them out if you like that sorta thing. The car driving through the river and the fallen trees around downtown are the craziest shots. Never mind the city still looks freaking gorgeous amidst all this destruction.

But I still refuse to believe summer has passed, nope.

, , ,

  • http://www.dangerous-business.com Amanda

    We ran at story or two about evil Igor in the newspaper I work at. I totally thought of you, and wondered how you fared in St. John’s (according to the story we ran, you guys got hit the worst!). That’s a whole lotta water! Glad everyone is okay though.

  • http://trustmaggie.wordpress.com maggie

    They’re saying this was a once every 50-100 years kind of thing, and calling it a “historic weather disaster”. There’s a 90 year old woman who had to be picked up by helicopter before she starved to death. I still see signs of Igor when I’m driving around town.

    The craziest bit, I think, is how much build up there was for Earl… you heard about it for ages before it happened. I heard about Igor… the night before. Even the day of, when I called into town to see if our satelitte clinic would be open the people in town were like “um, yeah? why not?”… no one seemed to expect this level of chaos at ALL.

    I definitely got off lucky – my felled trees didn’t do any damage, and I never lost power… but one of my colleagues hasn’t had power even still, and had the throw out SO MUCH food, and send her kids to school today several days unshowered… :(

  • http://travelerahoy.wordpress.com Alouise

    Wow Igor is a bastard, glad the only loss you had was pretty small. And I was totally picturing Young Frankenstein as well.

  • Alexis

    Poor Canada :(

  • http://www.TravelingGreener.com Sonya

    Wild Igor, great post!

  • http://solofriendly.com Gray

    We’re always so used to seeing things like this on the news happening to other places far, far away….it’s rather shocking when it happens to us. Especially, as you say, in a place that normally bears the brunt of severe weather just fine. I’m really sorry to hear about all the damage.

  • http://blog.alulai.com Cammy@ClassroomConfessions

    Dude, that is serious. I am used to hurricanes since I live in Miami, but they suck no matter what.

  • http://www.candicedoestheworld.com Candice

    Aww, thanks Amanda! St. John’s had a lot of damage but there’s still communities on the Burin peninsula that are in states of emergency, and it’s been a week! Whole homes destroyed, terrible.

  • http://www.candicedoestheworld.com Candice

    Yeah, EXACTLY! No build-up at all! I saw a brief mention of it on the news the night before, but it was kinda like meh, no big deal. It’s all Earl’s fault, like the boy who cried wolf.

  • http://www.candicedoestheworld.com Candice

    Hahaha, such an intimdating name.

  • http://www.candicedoestheworld.com Candice

    Poor NL!

  • http://www.candicedoestheworld.com Candice

    Thanks, Sonya!

  • http://www.candicedoestheworld.com Candice

    Thanks, Gray! Crazy to hear the destruction is still a big problem. The military’s involved now, hopefully that should solve a few problems.

  • http://www.candicedoestheworld.com Candice

    Agreed, wasn’t expecting ANYTHING like that.

  • http://www.solofemaletraveler.com Sabina

    Candice, are you glad you weren’t around to experience it personally? Or do you wish you’d been there? I would have wanted to have been there. And I tried to watch the first video and got the following message: “This video contains content from Russia Today, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.” I arrived in the UAE earlier today. I wonder how much more censored stuff I’m going to come across.

  • http://www.candicedoestheworld.com Candice

    I KINDA wish I had been there, just to witness it all. Plus holy hell, blogging goldmine! But it’s nice to see the country coming together to help out, no matter how small.