Canada sends in military to clean up after Igor

Terra Daily via AFP: Canada's prime minister ordered the military on Friday to help Newfoundland clean up what he described as the worst devastation he has ever seen in the country, after Hurricane Igor struck. After touring areas affected by the hurricane when it battered eastern Newfoundland on Tuesday with sustained winds of up to 140 kilometers per hours (87 miles per hour) and waves up to six meters (18 feet). "I have never seen damage like that," Prime Minister Stephen Harper told a local paper after visiting Trouty and Britannia, two of the hardest hit towns coping with flooding, washed out roads and bridges, and downed power lines. "I have seen flooding, but I have never seen anything like this," he was quoted as saying by the Grand Falls-Windsor Advertiser.

In a statement, the prime minister added: "We will be dispatching Canadian Forces personnel immediately to the hardest hit areas to provide emergency supplies and to assist local authorities with medical evacuations and the rebuilding of critical infrastructure." Igor forced evacuations of flooded coastal towns in Canada's island Newfoundland province and reportedly swept one man out to sea, before being downgraded to a tropical storm and moving offshore. Parts of the province were on high alert for most of Tuesday as the hurricane approached from the Atlantic Ocean, unleashing fierce winds and torrential rains than dumped 240 millimeters (9.5 inches) on the region. An elderly man was washed out to sea, according to public broadcaster CBC, after falling into a brook leading to the Atlantic Ocean when a roadway crumbled beneath his feet.

Search and rescue efforts were hampered by widespread flooding and washed out roads. On Friday, more than 80 coastal communities remained isolated and were running low on essential supplies with access severely hampered by damaged roads and bridges, authorities said....

Hurricane Igor on September 20, 2010, leaving Bermuda and heading toward Canada