Road connecting eastern N.L. communities washed out after hurricane Larry

ST. VINCENT’S-ST. STEPHEN’S-PETER’S RIVER, N.L. (CP –  Residents of a small eastern Newfoundland town will have to drive about 150 kilometres today if they want to collect their mail after hurricane Larry wiped out a seaside road.

The Category 1 storm brought pounding seas that chewed away the road on the narrow strip of land separating a large pond from the Atlantic Ocean along the southern Avalon Peninsula.

Ned Raymond says the road is impassable and the people in St. Vincent’s, N.L., can’t get across to St. Stephen’s, N.L., where the post office is located.

The mayor of St. Vincent’s-St. Stephen’s-Peter’s River says crews have been working to repair the road and he hopes it’ll be passable again in the next few days.

Ian Hubbard, a meteorologist with the Canadian Hurricane Centre, says hurricane Larry hurtled into the area overnight Friday and into Saturday morning just as high tide settled in, resulting in high seas that set records in some areas.

Hubbard says offshore hurricanes typically lose steam as they hit the cold Atlantic waters and wind down to tropical storms, but he says Larry was barrelling along so quickly it didn’t have time to cool down.