So, we had our flights booked months ago, a non-stop from Edmonton to get us into Halifax mid-afternoon. Not too long and not too much jet lag like we have with the European flights. September 7th and the late summer/fall weather should be nice. Karma. It’s laughing behind your back.
Plans changed obviously. We were due to land around 3pm just as Dorian’s eye was to pass over Halifax so the airline wisely cancelled our flight and rebooked us the following day. I was a bit bummed though. After earthquakes, lightning, and volcanos in Guatemala and lightning, tornados, and exploding meteors in Alberta, I kinda thought being in a hurricane might be a nice addition to the ‘Holidays in Hell’ bucket list. It was probably for the best though. We got into Dartmouth the next day and were lucky enough to get power on in the airBnB an hour before we arrived. Some places had to wait 6 days for power. Overall though, the damage was minimal as far as we could see. Some roof damage, a lot of downed trees and debris on the streets, and of course the wrecked crane in downtown Halifax. Seems it’s become the number 1 tourist attraction here though. It’s going to be interesting to watch how they take it down.
The Halifax/Dartmouth area is very picturesque, quaint comes to mind, and sits within a lovely harbor which is home massive shipping docks, cruise ship terminals, and the CFB – Halifax HMC Dockyard. Naval history abounds here as Halifax was a major hub in WW1, a staging point for WWII North Atlantic operations and the British, in the 1700 and 1800s, built quite a few naval defensive forts to protect their interests. The famous Bluenose was designed here and built in nearby Lunenburg by native Haligonian, William Roue. Neither are large as cities go but they have a lot of charm and the people are extremely friendly. And if you want to go to school, Dalhousie is close by, as is St Mary’s, University of King’s College, NSCAD arts University, and St. Francis Xavier and Acadia University are not far away.
Dorian not-withstanding, our stay here has been pleasant and the weather almost perfect with lots of sun and low 20s temperature. The last hurricane, Juan, came through in 2003 and caused a bit more damage and there were fatalities in that one. Not pleasant to go through so we’re told and hopefully it’s a least another 15 years or more before the next one. Climate change may have a say in this though. Fingers crossed.
It’s worth mentioning that Halifax has had it’s share of ‘disasters’ besides hurricanes, notably the infamous WWI ammunitions explosion in the harbor in 1917 which flattened everything within a 2.5Km radius including the entire Halifax harbor-front. This event, along with the subsequent tsunami and fires, killed almost 2000 people. FACT: This was the largest man-made explosion ever until the Hiroshima A-Bomb. So, bye-bye Dorian. You were a non-event by comparison.