A long cleanup started late Tuesday in the wake of post-tropical storm Leslie as Newfoundlanders rattled by hurricane Igor two years ago breathed a collective refrain: it could have been worse.
Leslie hammered Newfoundland with hurricane-force winds in St. John's that tore apart roofs, stripped off siding, toppled trees and snapped power lines as it doused the island's west coast with rain.
Utility workers around the capital city scrambled to reconnect electricity to more than 40,000 homes as police urged residents to stay indoors to avoid flying debris and help speed the clearing of roads.
At the height of the storm, about 100,000 people in St. John's and on the Avalon Peninsula were without power for several hours.
Premier Kathy Dunderdale said there were no reports of serious injuries or major evacuations. Seven St. John's families were relocated after their social housing units were damaged in the roaring gale, she said.
"We faced the bullet head-on and wanted a test of our emergency plan, wanted to see how our infrastructure was going to stand up," she said after the storm had passed late Tuesday afternoon.
"You can do all kinds of tests, but there's only one test that counts, and that's when you're in the face of a weather event such as this."
The province has improved disaster prevention protocols since Igor wreaked $125 million in damages to eastern Newfoundland, cutting off 90 communities, 22 of which declared states of emergency.
Most people took warnings from the Canadian Hurricane Centre seriously Monday as Leslie swirled toward the province, Dunderdale said.
"You can't protect against everything, so there is some property damage and so on, power outages. But they're minor. Everybody is safe and sound, and that's the main thing."
Officials with the Canadian Hurricane Centre in Halifax said the centre of the storm made landfall at around 8: 30 a.m. local time in Fortune, N.L., following its anticipated track across the Burin Peninsula.
Meteorologist Bob Robichaud said Leslie blew through St. John's with winds that gusted more than 130 km/h.
The centre initially said Leslie was a tropical storm when it made landfall but later described it as post-tropical. The designation means the strongest winds and heaviest rain spread out past the eye of the system.
There were hurricane-force gusts of up to 132 km/h at the St. John's International Airport, and a buoy in Placentia Bay recorded waves topping 12 metres. Parts of Newfoundland's west coast were soaked with more than 100 millimetres of rain.
Schools were closed across the island and Marine Atlantic ferry crossings were cancelled along with flights to and from the St. John's airport.
