One woman has gone missing after being swept into the Labrador Sea in Newfoundland, the BBC reports.

On Friday, the status of Hurricane Fiona was changed to a tropical storm.

Such events are rare in Canada, and police said the storm was "unlike anything we've ever seen."

The military has been sent to Nova Scotia to help local residents.

Torrential rains and wind gusts of up to 160 km/h hit parts of the five provinces, causing widespread flooding and leaving hundreds of thousands of people without electricity.

Prime Minister

said, "If there's anything the federal government can do to help, we'll be there."

He also said that he will no longer fly to Japan to attend the funeral of former Prime Minister

, because Canada needs to deal with the consequences of the storm.

Tropical storm warnings have been issued for the Atlantic provinces of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and parts of Quebec.

In Port-au-Basque, population 4,067, on the southwestern tip of Newfoundland, intense flooding caused some homes and office buildings to be washed out to sea, local journalist Rene Roy told the CBC.

There is a state of emergency in the district.

He added that many houses were left as "a pile of rubble in the ocean", adding: "There is a house that is literally gone.

There are whole streets that have disappeared."

Officials later confirmed that at least 20 homes were lost.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said one woman was rescued after she was "thrown into the water when her house collapsed."

They said there was another report of a missing woman, but conditions remained too dangerous to conduct a search.

Power companies are warning that it could take days to restore power as wind speeds remain too high to start work on downed power lines.

Nova Scotia was last hit by a tropical cyclone in 2003 with Hurricane Juan, a Category 2 storm that killed two people and caused extensive damage to buildings and vegetation.

Fiona already wreaked havoc in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic earlier this week, leaving many areas without power or water.