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ST. JOHN’S — Residents of a small fishing community woke up to find pieces of their local seawall floating in the harbour, torn apart by a winter storm that bore down on eastern Newfoundland for 24 hours this week.
The town of Trepassey, N.L., declared a state of emergency Tuesday as roaring waves and sharp debris made a seaside road impassable by car, leaving 21 residents virtually cut off from the rest of the island.
It was the second time in three months that severe weather had damaged the long wooden wall built to protect the road from the raging sea. But this time, it was all but pulverized, said Mayor Wanda Waddleton.
The storm season so far has been “unreal,” Waddleton said in an interview. “It’s the worst I’ve ever seen, it’s the worst anyone’s ever seen.”
The storm began at roughly 2 a.m. on Monday, and it ended at about 2 a.m. Tuesday, with a short break in the snowfall on Monday afternoon, said meteorologist Eddie Sheerr. Weather watchers in the greater St. John’s region recorded snowfalls between 40 and 47 centimetres on Monday morning, he said.
Atlantic Canada has been hit with several big storms so far this season. This week’s storm was at least the fourth to close schools or delay their opening in the St. John’s metro region since Dec. 1.
In central Newfoundland, the town of Badger was forced to declare a state of emergency last week when a nearby river system began to overflow. More than 100 people were still out of their homes on Tuesday after local officials ordered them to flee on Jan. 29.
Trepassey is home to about 400 people, most of whom live in the main part of the town on the southeast tip of Newfoundland. A thin strip of land barely wide enough for a road connects the main community with a four-kilometre-long peninsula known as the “lower coast.”
The breakwater, or seawall, ran along that road, protecting it from the roaring ocean. Images on social media Tuesday morning showed waves swelling up onto the strip with barely any of the wall left to keep the water at bay. The road was covered in shredded boards and rocks swept up by the sea.
Waddleton said crews were working to clear the debris so people in the lower coast area could once again get across the road. In the meantime, if someone needed medication or had an emergency, people could navigate the strip on all-terrain vehicles and help them, she said.
In November, the town had to evacuate the lower coast residents amid a howling storm. The experience was enough to convince two families to move out of the lower coast, she said.
“It’s getting scarier every day,” she said of the changing weather patterns in her community. “I don’t know what to think of it all.”
She figures it will cost “millions” to properly replace the breakwater, and she hopes the federal and provincial governments are ready to foot the bill.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 3, 2026.
The Canadian Press
