Winds over 100 kilometres per hour hit East Coast as homeless tie down tents

Powerful gusts were forecast to reach speeds of more than 100 kilometres per hour on Canada’s East Coast on Monday, as residents of homeless encampments across the Halifax area secured their tents in hopes of weathering the storm.

As of 3 p.m. local time, about 5,000 people were without power in Nova Scotia; New Brunswick had 8,000 outages.

Ian Hubbard with Environment Canada said strong winds are expected to begin in southern Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and sweep across the provinces through the day and overnight. The storm is forecast to cross the Cabot Strait overnight and into southern Newfoundland, where powerful winds are also expected.

Hubbard says the strongest gusts may reach up to 110 km/h and that between 50 to 80 millimetres of rain will fall. The storm is the result of a low-pressure system meeting an abnormally high-pressure system in the Atlantic Ocean, creating a slow-moving storm with strong winds, he says.

“We’re expecting about eight to maybe 12 hours of some pretty powerful gusts, depending on where you are in the region,” Hubbard said.

As the weather bears down, there are concerns about how homeless encampments will fare in such powerful winds.

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Volunteer groups in the Halifax area have purchased ice-fishing shelters for encampments in Lower Sackville and in the city’s Grand Parade square to help homeless people brave the cold, wet weather that’s hit Nova Scotia so far this winter.

Stephen Wilsack, a volunteer assisting residents of a homeless encampment across Halifax City Hall, said Monday he’s hopeful the ice-fishing tents are secure enough to endure the windstorm.

“Obviously, the better situation would be to move people indoors, and we’ve been pressing for almost three weeks to get the unhoused indoors, right across the province,” Wilsack said in an interview. “Unfortunately there seems to be red tape in providing shelters.”

A media relations spokeswoman for the City of Halifax sent an email stating, “Ground search and rescue will be checking on encampments and helping to transport people if necessary.”

The provincial Department of Community Services said in an email it is working closely with non-profit groups across the province to prepare for the weather. “Over the next few days, many of our service providers will open additional shelters and increase their capacity,” spokesperson Christina Deveau said. “Service providers and outreach workers connect with people in the community to ensure they know what resources are available.

“We will share the list on social media shortly and we encourage anyone experiencing homelessness to call 211 to be connected to services in their area.”

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The department has indicated in the past that there is an indoor emergency shelter with 80 beds, with plans to expand to 100, at a renovated church in the suburb of Dartmouth.

Nicki Greer, president of a non-profit that assists homeless residents living on a ball field in Lower Sackville, said in a telephone interview that all of the roughly 40 residents of the encampment have access to donated ice-fishing tents.

“We are as prepared as a tent encampment can be prepared for 100-kilometre-an-hour winds. Over the last week since the last storm we have been tirelessly trying to clean up, we secured some more plywood and we drilled down the ice fishing tents,” she said.

“So we should have no ice-fishing tents taking flight this round, which will be fantastic.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 18, 2023.