TORONTO — Fiona washed houses into the sea, tore the roofs off others and knocked out power to the vast majority of two Canadian provinces as it made landfall before dawn Saturday as a big, powerful post-tropical cyclone.

Mayor Brian Button said Saturday over social media that people were being evacuated to high ground as winds knocked down power lines.

More than 415,000 Nova Scotia Power customers — about 80% of the province of almost 1 million — were affected by outages Saturday morning.

“We’re getting more severe storms more frequently,” Trudeau said Saturday.

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said roads were washed out, including his own, and said an “incredible” amount of trees were down.

Their phones are not working, they don’t have power or access to the internet,” Houston said.

Peter Gregg, President and CEO of Nova Scotia Power, said unprecedented peak winds caused severe damage.

He said about 380,000 customers remain without power as of Saturday afternoon.

He said over 95% of islanders remained without power.

Federal Minister of Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair said there was very extensive damage at the airport in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

He said other airports also were hit, but that damage at the Halifax facility, Nova Scotia’s largest airport, was minor.

hurricane center said it had maximum sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph).

In Sydney, Nova Scotia, the largest city in Cape Breton, about 20 people took refuge at the Centre 200 sports and entertainment facility, said Christina Lamey, a spokeswoman for the region.

Lamey said there were hundreds of people displaced in the province.

Peter MacKay, a former foreign minister and defense minister who lives in Nova Scotia, said he and his family had a long night and said the winds were still raging in the afternoon.

National Hurricane Center said it could move over western Cuba and toward the west coast of Florida or the Florida Panhandle by the middle of next week.