Barking at shovels

Hurricane aftermath

I just got another report from my parents, calling from my grandmother's. They're still without power or phone service, four days later, and no power means no water either. They're okay, but they did lose the greenhouse, at least part of the dock and possibly the slipway as well (it floated off its foundation, but is still basically intact), and half a dozen or a dozen big trees, including a couple of giants that have been there since before I was born. (Well, they only built the house there the year after I was born, but the trees were already there before that.) The place is going to have a few big holes in it next time I see it.

Halifax got properly clobbered. Juan was "only" a Class 1 hurricane when it hit, but the eye apparently went right through the city, which makes it the first direct hit by a hurricane in fifty years. It set a new record for high water in the Harbour, something like five feet above the usual high tide, which wrecked wharves that had stood for a hundred years. The other big loss was tens of thousands of the biggest trees. I'd have thought they'd do better, having survived decades of ice storms, but I guess ice load does a different kind of damage than hurricane winds. Trees were just uprooted and downed into the roads everywhere -- this, apparently, is a big part of why it's taking so long to get the power back on. Many roads are still impassable.

Regrettably, I don't have an attribution for these pictures.

Jubilee Road:

Citadel Hill:

The Public Gardens:

Halifax waterfront, with harbour pilot boat:

I haven't found a decent picture yet showing how trashed fishermen's docks are.

The Commons:

Update (10/03): And another one:

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