Nova Scotia Prepares For Franklin and "Intense" Hurricane Season

HALIFAX - With the arrival of a storm that kicks off a hurricane season that many climatologists and meteorologists are describing as "intense" and unusually active, officials at the local and provincial level are warning Nova Scotians to be ready for the actual storms and the fallout that can arise from such weather systems. 

Days before Hurricane Franklin became the first of this year's named storms to reach the northeastern Atlantic Ocean after beginning its life in the Gulf of Mexico, the Province of Nova Scotia held a media availability meeting featuring several stakeholders in emergency response. These included the provincial Minister responsible for Nova Scotia's Emergency Management Office (EMO), John Lohr, as well as EMO executive director Jason Mew, Environment and Climate Change Canada representative, Bob Robichaud, Ancil Langille of the Canadian Red Cross (Nova Scotia), and the Storm Lead for Nova Scotia Power, Matt Drover. 

"We're up to nine named storms right now, and one of those storms have actually made it to hurricane status," Robichaud told the media availability held on August 24 in Halifax. "And the average is five named storms, two hurricanes and one major hurricane."

Although the track for Hurricane Franklin had veered south of Nova Scotia's coastline as of Tuesday and is not expected to make landfall in Atlantic Canada, forecast models from earlier this week indicated that several coastal areas of Nova Scotia could still receive between 50 and 100 millimetes of rain on Wednesday and Thursday before Franklin's fallout finally eased off. 

Also offering perspectives gained from Hurricane Fiona's destructive path through Cape Breton in the early fall of 2022 were Richmond County's Emergency Services Coordinator, Steven Marcellus, Richmond MLA Trevor Boudreau, and Arichat resident Jennie Pardy, who coordinated a fundraising campaign for two of her family members after Fiona's high winds destroyed the Isle Madame trailer that had been their home for the previous twenty years.