LOCKEPORT, Canada: Lee made landfall as a post-tropical cyclone packing hurricane-force winds in a far western part of Canada’s Nova Scotia province on Saturday (Sep 16), flooding roads, downing trees and cutting out power for tens of thousands of people along the North Atlantic coast.
At least one storm-related fatality was recorded on Saturday. A motorist in the US state of Maine died after a tree fell on his vehicle, local media reported.
The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its latest advisory that Lee was moving north after it made landfall on Long Island, a small island southwest of Halifax, on Saturday. The still-powerful weather system packed maximum sustained winds of 100kmh with higher gusts, forecasters said.
Lee, now located about 60km east-southeast of Eastport, Maine and about 215km west of Halifax, is expected to weaken steadily during the next couple of days.
It brought strong winds, coastal flooding and heavy rains to parts of coastal Maine and Atlantic Canada.
In the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, around 120,000 people were without power on Saturday as winds knocked down trees and felled power lines. In neighboring New Brunswick, nearly 20,000 people experienced power outages.
“Crews have been able to restore power to some customers … however, conditions are getting worse. In many cases, especially when winds are above 80kmh, it isn’t safe for our crews,” Matt Drover of the Nova Scotia electric utility said earlier on Saturday.
Winds have reached over 100kmh in parts of the west and over 90kmh in downtown Halifax, the largest city in Nova Scotia, he said in a statement. Halifax airport was closed to all flights.
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