Lee makes landfall in Canada with winds of 70 miles per hour
BAR HARBOR, Maine — Atlantic storm Lee made landfall at near-hurricane power Saturday in Nova Scotia, Canada, after bringing harmful winds, tough surf and torrential rains to a big swath of New England and Maritime Canada that toppled timber, swamped coastlines and lower energy to tens of hundreds. One particular person was killed in Maine when a tree limb fell on his car.
With sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph), the middle of the post-tropical cyclone got here ashore about 135 miles (215 kilometers) west of Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, in accordance with the U.S. Nationwide Hurricane Middle. That’s about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Eastport, Maine.
The storm was anticipated to weaken because it moved into New Brunswick and the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
In the USA, a tropical storm warning remained in impact from Cape Elizabeth, Maine, north to the U.S.-Canada border. That included Bar Harbor, the touristy gateway to Acadia Nationwide Park, the place a whale watch vessel broke freed from its mooring and crashed ashore. Authorities labored to dump 1,800 gallons of diesel gasoline to stop it from spilling into the ocean.
Lee flooded coastal roads in Nova Scotia and took ferries out of service because it fanned anxiousness in a area nonetheless reeling from wildfires and extreme flooding this summer season. The province’s largest airport, Halifax Stanfield Worldwide, cancelled all flights.
“Persons are exhausted. … It’s a lot in such a small time interval,” stated Pam Lovelace, a councilor in Halifax.
Hurricane-force winds prolonged so far as 140 miles (220 kilometers) from Lee’s heart, with tropical storm-force winds extending so far as 390 miles (630 kilometers) — sufficient to cowl all of Maine and far of Maritime Canada.
The storm was so large that it brought on energy outages a number of hundred miles from its heart. At noon Saturday, 11% of electrical energy prospects in Maine lacked energy, together with 27% of Nova Scotia, 8% of New Brunswick and three% of Prince Edward Island.
Storm surge of as much as 3 ft (0.91 meters) was anticipated alongside coastal areas, accompanied by giant and harmful waves, the hurricane heart stated. Lee may drop as a lot as 4 inches of rain on components of Maine, Massachusetts, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick via Saturday evening, with the potential for native flooding.
A 51-year-old motorist in Searsport, Maine, died after a big tree limb fell on his car Saturday on U.S. Freeway 1 throughout a interval of excessive winds, the primary fatality attributed to the storm.
The tree limb introduced down dwell energy traces, and utility staff needed to lower energy earlier than the person might be eliminated, stated Police Chief Brian Lunt. The unidentified man died later at a hospital, Lunt stated.
The storm skirted among the most waterlogged areas of Massachusetts that skilled extreme flash flooding days earlier, when quick water washed out roads, brought on sinkholes, broken properties and flooded autos.
In jap Maine, winds died down sufficient by late afternoon for utility staff to start utilizing their bucket vans to make repairs. Each Central Maine Energy and Versant Energy had lots of of staff, together with out-of-state crews, to help within the effort.
“At this level, the storm is resembling a nor’easter,” stated Sarah Thunberg, a Nationwide Climate Service meteorologist, referring to the autumn and winter storms that usually plague the area and are so named as a result of their winds blow from the northeast. They usually have a a lot wider wind subject than tropical methods, whose winds keep nearer to a storm’s heart.
However all the area has skilled an particularly moist summer season — it ranked second within the variety of wet days in Portland, Maine — and Lee’s excessive winds toppled timber burdened by the rain-soaked floor in Maine, the nation’s most closely wooded state.
Cruise ships discovered refuge at berths in Portland, whereas lobstermen in Bar Harbor and elsewhere pulled traps from the water and hauled boats inland.
Billy Bob Faulkingham, Home Republican chief of the Maine Legislature, and one other lobsterman survived after their boat overturned whereas hauling traps forward of the storm Friday, officers stated.
The boat’s emergency locator beacon alerted authorities, and the 2 clung to the hull till assist arrived, stated Winter Harbor Police Chief Danny Mitchell. The 42-foot boat sank.
“They’re very fortunate to be alive,” Mitchell stated.
Forecasters urged residents to remain house, however many ventured out anyway.
Betsy Follansbee and her husband, Fred, jogged to Higgins Seaside in Scarborough, Maine, to look at surfers — some carrying helmets — paddling out to catch waves reaching 12 ft (3.6 meters). They had been the most important waves Follansbee has seen in her 10 years residing there, she stated.
“We’re impressed that they’re daring sufficient to attempt,” Follansbee stated.
On Maine’s Bailey Island, a slender spit jutting into the Gulf of Maine, Ren Renton watched the ocean roil. “It comes and goes and takes what it desires, however hopefully not an excessive amount of,” she stated.
Lee shared some traits with 2012’s Superstorm Sandy. Each had been once-strong hurricanes that grew to become post-tropical cyclones — cyclonic storms which have misplaced most of their tropical traits — earlier than landfall. Lee was not anticipated to be practically as harmful as Sandy, which brought on billions of {dollars} in harm and was blamed for dozens of deaths in New York and New Jersey.
Lee additionally isn’t anyplace close to as extreme because the remnants of Hurricane Fiona, which a 12 months in the past washed homes into the ocean in jap Canada, knocked out energy to most of two provinces and swept a lady into the ocean, stated Canadian meteorologist Jill Maepea.
Harmful hurricanes are comparatively uncommon thus far north. The Nice New England Hurricane of 1938 introduced gusts as excessive as 186 mph (300 kph) and sustained winds of 121 mph (195 kph) at Massachusetts’ Blue Hill Observatory. However there have been no storms that highly effective in recent times.
Story by Robert F. Bukaty and David Sharp, Related Press. Sharp reported from Portland, Maine. Contributing to this report had been Related Press journalists Robert Bumsted in Cape Elizabeth, Maine; Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine; Michael Casey in Boston; Rio Yamat in Las Vegas; Mark Thiessen in Anchorage, Alaska; Rob Gillies in Toronto; and Kathy McCormack in Harmony, New Hampshire.
