BAR HARBOR, Maine (AP) — Atlantic storm Lee pummeled a big swath of New England and Maritime Canada with harmful winds, tough surf and torrential rains that toppled timber, flooded roadways and lower energy to tens of hundreds on Saturday. One particular person was killed in Maine when a tree limb fell on his automobile.
The middle of the sprawling post-tropical cyclone made landfall 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. It had near-hurricane-strength winds of 70 mph (110 kph), although the storm was weakening because it headed north to New Brunswick and the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
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,” mentioned Pam Lovelace, a councilor in Halifax.
The storm was so massive that it triggered energy outages a number of hundred miles from its middle. 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.
Hurricane-force winds prolonged so far as 140 miles (220 kilometers) from Lee’s middle, with tropical storm-force winds extending so far as 320 miles (515 kilometers) — sufficient to cowl all of Maine and far of Maritime Canada.
In the USA, a tropical storm warning remained in impact from Stonington, 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 gas to forestall it from spilling into the ocean.
A 51-year-old motorist in Searsport, Maine, died after a big tree limb fell on his automobile 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 strains, and utility staff needed to lower energy earlier than the person may very well be eliminated, mentioned Police Chief Brian Lunt. The unidentified man died later at a hospital, Lunt mentioned.
Storm surge of as much as 3 ft (0.91 meters) was anticipated alongside coastal areas, accompanied by massive and harmful waves, the hurricane middle mentioned.
The storm skirted among the most waterlogged areas of Massachusetts that skilled extreme flash flooding days earlier, when quick water washed out roads, triggered 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 a whole lot of staff, together with out-of-state crews, to help within the effort.
“At this level, the storm is resembling a nor’easter,” mentioned Sarah Thunberg, a Nationwide Climate Service meteorologist, referring to the autumn and winter storms that always plague the area and are so named as a result of their winds blow from the northeast. They sometimes have a a lot wider wind discipline than tropical programs, whose winds keep nearer to a storm’s middle.
However the whole 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 pressured 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 mentioned.
The boat’s emergency locator beacon alerted authorities, and the 2 clung to the hull till assist arrived, mentioned Winter Harbor Police Chief Danny Mitchell. The 42-foot boat sank.
“They’re very fortunate to be alive,” Mitchell mentioned.
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 observe surfers — some sporting 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 mentioned.
“We’re impressed that they’re daring sufficient to strive,” Follansbee mentioned.
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 mentioned.
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 almost as harmful as Sandy, which triggered 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 yr in the past washed homes into the ocean in jap Canada, knocked out energy to most of two provinces and swept a girl into the ocean, mentioned Canadian meteorologist Jill Maepea.
Harmful hurricanes are comparatively uncommon up to now 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.
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.
This story has been corrected to point out that the Republican chief of the Maine Legislature is named Billy Bob Faulkingham, not Invoice Bob.
