'A lot of the beach is gone': Parlee Beach badly damaged after post-tropical storm Fiona
One of the most popular beaches on the East Coast looks a lot different now than it did before post-tropical storm Fiona ravaged Atlantic Canada.
Boardwalks at Parlee Beach in Pointe-du-Chêne, N.B., were destroyed and the sand dunes were swept away.
“A lot of the beach is gone, a lot of the dune is gone,” says resident Pat Gallant.
"I'd say at least maybe 10, 15 feet, all the way along though. Not just one spot."
For more than 30 years, New Brunswick has been trucking about 1,000 loads of sand from the western end of the beach to the eastern side to replenish what is lost in a typical year. Area MLA Jacques Leblanc says it’s going to take much more than that this year.
“We had a beach nourishment program, that’s been established since the mid-1980s. Hurricane Fiona, to recoup what we lost it, would be 5,000 truckloads of sand, that’s what I’m hearing,” says Leblanc.
The ocean took a similar toll at the Pointe-Du-Chêne Yacht Club down the road.
“The water breached over our break-wall,” says club manager Brandon Webb.
That wall stands at least 15 feet high. If they want to make it higher, Webb estimates it will cost thousands of dollars per foot to do so.
“We are really hoping that some of the disaster relief fund will come our way and we will be able to invest in this to not only protect the club and the marina, but the wharf and the bay,” Webb says.
It's a wharf people thought was ready for anything Mother Nature could bring its way.
“I would say it’s five to six times worse than Dorian and even possibly higher than that. We were ready for a Dorian type of a storm but we certainly weren’t ready for Fiona and I don’t know what the future holds,” says the general manager of the Pointe-Du-Chêne Harbour Authority, Victor Cormier.
The wharf is expected to reopen to the public Tuesday. Discussions are underway to plan for the next Fiona, or worse.
As for Parlee Beach, the cleanup is almost complete, but the rebuilding of the boardwalks and the restoration of the ecologically significant sand dunes is going to take some time.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Orca calf that was trapped in B.C. lagoon for weeks swims free
An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
'I was scared': Ontario man's car repossessed after missing two repair loan payments
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
Powerful tornado tears across Nebraska, weather service warns of 'catastrophic' damage
Devastating tornadoes tore across parts of eastern Nebraska and northeast Texas Friday as a multi-day severe thunderstorm event ramped up in the central United States.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Trump's lawyers try to discredit testimony of prosecution's first witness in hush money trial
Donald Trump's defence team attacked the credibility Friday of the prosecution's first witness in his hush money case, seeking to discredit testimony detailing a scheme between Trump and a tabloid to bury negative stories to protect the Republican's 2016 presidential campaign.