Hurricane Fiona made landfall in Nova Scotia shortly after 3 a.m. on Saturday. Across the province, some of the storm's greatest impacts were in Cape Breton, and damage assessments and recovery efforts have been underway.

Some businesses and houses in Halifax were impacted by the hurricane by losing power and electricity for days. Those unaffected did their best to help, whether it was by giving out food and water or offering a space for people to charge their devices and connect to the internet.

Flynn's Dairy Bar & Convenience is one of Halifax's fan-favourite ice cream stores. Luckily, their Hollis street location was not impacted by the power outages, and they did their best to help those in need.

Flynn's supervisor Zaid Sheikh said his father has been helping people with food and water all year before the hurricane took place.

"There was this situation where there was a hurricane coming up. Nothing much happened downtown, but we expected a lot more damage in the suburban areas. Since we had lots of stock of bread, milk and eggs, we thought we might as well give it out to the people," said Sheikh.

Sheikh said that so far, he has given out 45 packages of food and hopes that number would increase, as more people hear about the store's initiative.

"It is always about giving out to the people who need it. I  encourage a lot more people to do the same," he added.

Brady Muller is the business owner of the Bird's Nest Cafe.
Photo by Sara Gouda.

Another business that was unaffected by the power outages was the Bird's Nest Cafe on Barrington Street. Only instead of giving out food, they offered people a place to charge their devices and use the internet, as well as offering nearby restaurants their storage and freezer room space.

"The Bird's Nest Cafe was one of the lucky ones that didn't really suffer damage, we in fact didn't even lose power. So we felt like the one thing that we could offer people was access to power. We made a charging station that was accessible through our space, even if we weren't opened. We also made fridge and freezer space available for other restaurants that might have a lot of costly product that wouldn't be covered," said owner Brady Muller.

Muller added it was nice to see that other restaurants in the city were able to make use of their space, saving them thousands of dollars worth of product.

"It is a very strong sense of community in this city, unlike a lot of other places. There's a real sense that no matter what goes on in this city, everyone has each other's back and is going to make it through," said Muller.

Morgan Harlow is the supervisor of The Pint Public House in Halifax.
Photo by Sara Gouda.

The Pint Public House has been offering 50 per cent off their food menu items for health care workers and first responders. They recently announced that they have extended their list to Nova Scotia Power employees and other crews, as an appreciation of their hard work to restore power across Nova Scotia.

"Since Hurricane Fiona happened, we have actually extended our 50 per cent discount for EMTs, Nova Scotia health workers, the police fire department, to anyone working for Nova Scotia Power. They're entitled to 50 per cent off one regular price food item and that's our way of saying thank you for getting out there and getting Nova Scotians' power back even during the height of the storm," said supervisor Morgan Harlow.

Also, in a press release earlier today, Premier Tim Houston announced the Small Business Hurricane Relief Program.

The program will provide a one-time grant of $2,500 to small business owners to help offset the cost of unanticipated business closures.

In addition, the list of open comfort centres and shelters has been updated to include more locations in Cape Breton and surrounding areas.

Those in need can also check with their local municipality or call 211 for information on comfort centres and shelters.

Listen to the full interview below: