UPDATED

Tropical cyclone Lee makes landfall in Nova Scotia as thousands lose power

Victoria Bekiempis
Sat, 16 September 2023 

Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Post-tropical cyclone Lee made landfall in Nova Scotia, Canada, on Saturday afternoon hours after it battered New England and eastern Canada with powerful winds and rains.

The storm cut off electricity to tens of thousands and inundated coastal roads in Nova Scotia, and left at least one person dead, according to the Associated Press. The 51-year-old man died after a tree limb fell onto his vehicle as he was driving in Searsport, Maine. The tree felled live power lines and workers had to turn off electricity before the man could be taken from his vehicle. He died at a hospital.

Though Lee was downgraded from hurricane status early on Saturday morning, the storm still carried winds of about 70mph (112km/h), Weather.com reported.


Related: Biden approves state of emergency for Maine as Hurricane Lee approaches

Forecasters issued a tropical storm warning for areas stretching from the New Hampshire-Maine border into Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Large parts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, among them Halifax, were under a tropical storm warning, Weather.com said.

President Joe Biden on Friday declared a state of emergency in Maine as Lee barrelled northward. Maine’s governor, Janet Mills, remarked on Friday: “I continue to strongly urge all Maine people, especially those Down East, to take the necessary precautions to stay safe as Hurricane Lee moves closer.”

The US’s National Hurricane Center (NHC) alerted residents of torrential downpours. “Heavy rainfall from Lee could produce localized urban and small stream flooding in eastern Maine into portions of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia from tonight into Saturday night,” the NHC said on Friday.

. Lee – which at one point had achieved the highest intensity classification given to hurricanes, category 5 – battered Bermuda, the Bahamas and the US Virgin Islands with tropical storm conditions before moving northward, according to the Associated Press.

The NHC warned that Lee was poised to cause “life-threatening surf and rip current conditions” – with waves of up to 15ft in some areas of coastal Maine. The conditions threaten erosion in Maine, which is the US’s most densely forested state, as the AP noted.

Pam Lovelace, a Halifax, Nova Scotia, councilor reported that coastal roads were flooded and boats were submerged along St Margarets Bay’s harbor. The powerful waters come in the wake of extreme flooding this summer.

“People are exhausted,” Lovelace reportedly said. “It’s so much in such a small time period.

“From a mental health perspective, we’re asking people to check in on their neighbors.”

Canadian authorities urged people to remain at home rather than venture outside. “Nothing good can come from checking out the big waves and how strong the wind truly is,” said Kyle Leavitt, the director of the New Brunswick Emergency Measures Organization, according to the AP.

The National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Foisy described the ground in Maine as saturated, further imperiling trees that had been weakened by summertime rains. “We have a long way to go, and we’re already seeing downed trees and power outages,” Foisy told the Associated Press.

Officials in Canada have predicted that Lee will not be as damaging as the tail end of Hurricane Fiona last year. Fiona’s waters washed homes into the Atlantic Ocean and cut off power to most of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

The AP said disastrous hurricanes are somewhat of an anomaly this far north. In 1938, the Great New England Hurricane packed winds as high as 186mph – with sustained gusts of 121mph – at the Blue Hill Observatory in Massachusetts.

However, meteorological authorities have described the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season as unprecedented. This summer’s uniquely warm sea surface temperatures – caused by the climate crisis – are fertile grounds for tropical storms and hurricanes.

Some locals on Saturday seemed undisturbed by the storms. Among them was Bruce Young, a lobsterman in Bar Harbor, Maine.

“There’s going to be huge white rollers coming in on top of 50 to 60mph winds. It’ll be quite entertaining,” Young said. To be safe, he did move his boat to the regional airport, the AP reported.

In Dennis, Massachusetts, which is on Cape Cod, David Sundstrom, a local resident, said he had expected more dire conditions.

“Little disappointing, I thought it’d be worse,” Sundstrom was quoted by NBC Boston as saying. “But I’m glad this is all we’ve gotten.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting. This is a developing news story and will be updated.