White sand dunes, gem of P.E.I.'s central coast, severely damaged in Fiona

Post-tropical storm Fiona changed the coastline of Prince Edward Island forever, however nowhere is more obvious than the P.E.I. National Park on the island’s north shore.

The storm destroyed entire swaths of it, and with recovery efforts now underway, it’s slow going as crews deal with the devastation.

Across the park, between 10 and 30 feet of iconic shoreline is gone.

Huge dunes and white sand beaches -- a stark contrast from P.E.I.’s normally red soil -- disappeared into the sea.

There had been significant efforts to preserve the dunes in recent years, but now many are gone.

“We don’t necessarily have a full picture of what that means for these ecosystems,” said James Eastham, Parks Canada Information Officer. “That’s one of the questions that our park ecologists here will be studying over the weeks, months, and years ahead.”

The destruction extends beyond the beach. There’s been significant damage to the trees, many of which were knocked down blocking roads, slowing assessment and cleanup efforts.

“The complexity of the tree removals, and how intricate the trees were, the quantity of them, and all the attention and compression forces that are at play,” said Parks Canada Safety Officer Sebastien Marcoux.

Eleven national crew and 34 local staff, along with specialized contractors to operate heavy equipment, are working to untangle the mess and clear debris.

“We don’t see the scale of this many downed trees, but we definitely see many strong winds that will pile trees like that in a smaller scale,” said Marcoux.

The park has been closed because of Fiona and there’s no timeline yet as to when it can reopen.

“Erosion at Cavendish, and blown down trees at Stanhope,” said Eastham. “A lot of the shoreline will look quite different when visitors return.”

The devastation is clear, but staff don’t yet have enough information to compare this to previous storms. They say that work is ongoing.