By Tim Binnall
A beloved rock formation in Canada is no more after Hurricane Fiona swept over the eastern part of the country over the weekend. According to a local media report, the natural landmark dubbed 'Teacup Rock' sat on the shore of Prince Edward Island's Thunder Cove Beach and had become something of an iconic location which was photographed countless times by awestruck travelers and people celebrating milestone occasions in their life. However, the teacup-shaped chunk of sandstone was no match for the massive storm that battered the island on Saturday and when the proverbial dust finally settled, it was sadly discovered that the formation had been wiped away by the hurricane.
The demise of 'Teacup Rock' led to several people venturing to Thunder Cove Beach on Sunday to see the shocking sight for themselves and to mourn the loss of the landmark. One visitor observed that, in her travels, she had "seen many great things," such as the Great Wall of China and the Giza Pyramid, but she found that the formation was "more magnificent" than those sites, since "she formed herself from nature." This sadness was echoed by another person who regrets that future visitors to the island "will not get to experience the 'wow' factor of coming around the rocks through the water to see the Teacup."
While the famous formation vanishing from the landscape is undeniably jarring, it would seem that local residents have been expecting this turn of events for the last few years due to the precarious way in which the sandstone sat upon the beach. "Every year, every fall, we think, 'Oh it's gonna be gone this winter,'" explained resident Katie McCrossin, "you always think it's gonna be the ice that takes it. But Hurricane Fiona was quite the storm." To that end, she mused that, while the disappearance of Teacup Rock was unfortunate, it was also a natural occurrence not unlike how it came to be in the first place as "the coastline is forever changing."