Hurricane Fiona: Our Community's Darkest Day — and Its Brightest

We've gone back and forth about how to write this. There's no version of the Hurricane Fiona story that fits neatly into a blog post. It's too big, too raw, and frankly, we're still living it. But the story matters, and it should be told by the people who were here. So here's ours.

The Storm

Hurricane Fiona arrived in the early hours of Saturday, September 24, 2022. We'd watched the forecasts all week. We knew it was going to be bad. But knowing and experiencing are different things.

The wind built through Friday night until it reached a pitch that none of us had ever heard. Sustained winds over 130 km/h. Gusts to 150. Trees that had stood for a hundred years came down like matchsticks. The sound alone was terrifying — a roar that didn't stop for hours.

Then the surge. A two-metre storm surge hit the North Shore between 6 and 9 AM, right at high tide. The worst possible timing. The ocean came inland in ways that nobody alive on PEI had seen before. Water poured through buildings, moved boats, rearranged the coastline.

By Saturday morning, 95% of Prince Edward Island had lost power. All 82,000 Maritime Electric customers — off. The entire province, dark.

North Rustico

Our community was ground zero on the North Shore. The breakwater — the structure that protects the harbour entrance and the waterfront — was split open by the surge. The Blue Mussel Cafe, one of the most recognizable restaurants on PEI, had a metre of ocean water pour through it. Eight cottages at Rustico Resort were flattened. Not damaged. Flattened.

The storm eroded ten metres of coastline in some areas. Ten metres gone in a single night. Dump trucks hauled dozens of loads of soil to remediate the waterfront in the weeks that followed. Roads were blocked by fallen trees — some neighbourhoods were cut off completely. The harbour, the lifeblood of this fishing community, was wrecked.

The Store

We lost power like everyone else. Getting it back was a priority — not because we're special, but because hardware stores are essential infrastructure after a storm like this. Maritime Electric crews prioritized getting stores like ours back online because communities needed us open. We're grateful for that, and we didn't waste it.

When we opened the doors, people were already lined up. Tarps. Plywood. Chainsaws. Generators. Batteries. Flashlights. Rope. The list was the same from every customer: how do I cover my roof, how do I clear my road, how do I keep my family warm. We moved more product in those first few days than we do in a normal month. Our staff worked long hours and kept going because that's what you do.

The First Week

By day five, 52,000 customers were still without power. Think about that. More than half the province, still dark, almost a week later. Full restoration took 28 days. Twenty-eight days. Some people went nearly a month without electricity in their homes.

The financial toll started coming into focus. $220 million in insurable damage across PEI — and that only counts what was insured. The federal government announced a $300 million Hurricane Fiona Recovery Fund for the Atlantic provinces. The numbers were staggering, and they still don't capture what it felt like to stand in your yard and look at what used to be your roof.

The Brightest Part

Here's the part of the story that matters most, and the reason we wanted to write this.

Before the rain had fully stopped, neighbours were outside with chainsaws. Not waiting for the government. Not waiting for the power company. Not waiting for anyone. Just out there, cutting trees off roads, checking on the elderly couple down the lane, clearing driveways so people could get out.

People charged their phones at the few places that had generators — and then shared those generators with whoever needed them. Hot meals were cooked on backyard BBQs and brought to neighbours who couldn't cook for themselves. Churches opened their doors. Community centres became warming stations. Samaritan's Purse arrived with teams of volunteers carrying chainsaws, and they worked alongside Islanders for weeks.

We watched people come into the store not just to buy supplies for their own home, but to pick up tarps for their neighbour's roof, or a box of batteries for someone they barely knew. That happened more times than we can count.

This is what North Rustico does. This is what PEI does. When the worst happens, the best in people comes out. We've always known that about this community, but Fiona proved it in a way that none of us will ever forget.

What's Ahead

The recovery is going to be long. We know that now. Roofs to reshingle, wharves to rebuild, a breakwater that needs millions in repairs, a coastline that has permanently changed. We'll be part of that recovery for as long as it takes.

To our customers, our neighbours, our friends — thank you. Thank you for showing up for each other. Thank you for trusting us to have what you needed, and for being patient when we didn't. Thank you for reminding us why we do what we do.

September 24, 2022 was the darkest day this community has seen in a very long time. But what followed was the brightest thing we've ever witnessed.