Remnants of Matthew not as severe as Igor, but Tuesday's storm packed a wallop
Province says the damage assessment continues
Provincial officials say while the damage to infrastructure and personal property from the storm that included the remnants of Hurricane Matthew is severe, it's not the same amount of destruction wrought by Hurricane Igor, which ravaged a larger portion of the island in September 2010.
That's not to say Tuesday's storm didn't pack a punch.
"In regions that were impacted by this event, you're getting similar type of damage and the same scale that we would have seen at the height of Igor. Where it hit, it hit with similar impact," said David McCormack, director of emergency services for the provincial Fire and Emergency Services.
'Oh no, not again'
McCormack's job is to help manage the response to a storm like the one on Tuesday, and as the calls started coming in overnight he thought, "Oh no, not again."
When looking at the highest rainfall amounts, this storm is certainly in same conversation as Igor, with many places recording over 100 millimetres and some over 200 millimetres of rain Monday night through Tuesday morning. Roads and bridges were washed out. Homes were hit — but the damage was not as widespread as with Igor.
"The coverage area for Igor was pretty much a swath of three-quarters of the island, and here it was pretty much the south coast, Connaigre, up through the central area, Lewisporte and the Bay of Exploits. It was a much more defined area than we saw in Igor," said McCormack.
10 communities isolated Tuesday, compared with Igor's 100
CBC meteorologist Ryan Snoddon said the key difference in the rainfall is where that rain fell.
"When you look at the map, that Burin to Bonavista Peninsula corridor has so many communities and roads, many of which were cut off during Igor," he said. "This latest storm, however, dropped its highest amounts along the more isolated south coast and interior parts of Newfoundland."
During Igor, 22 towns declared a state of emergency. This week's storm resulted in 17, down to 11, as of Wednesday afternoon. In Igor, more than 100 communities were left isolated; on Tuesday, 10 communities were isolated.
Igor in league of its own
Hurricane Igor was in a league of its own: The Canadian military was brought in to build temporary roads, bridges and deliver humanitarian aid. One person died. And the name Igor was removed from the rotating list of hurricane names for the Atlantic.
"When you compare the winds, this is where Igor stands alone," said Snoddon. "Igor was a hurricane and packed widespread damaging gusts in the 120-150 km/h range over Eastern Newfoundland, with gusts up to 172 along the south coast.
"Our Thanksgiving storm did bring some gusts over 100 km/h and up to 130 km/h on the South Coast, but was nowhere near Igor in terms of scale and impacts," he said.
McCormack says weather like Tuesday's storm shows people and towns need to be prepared.
"You can't stop the weather from coming. You hope that people have planned. and they have been planning and preparing for events like this," said McCormack.
"(There is) lots of work done within the communities. They've activated their emergency management plans," he said. "They've worked with their local partners and their volunteer groups, and they've done a really good job in managing their situations."