Lee knocks out power to tens of thousands as it brings fierce winds and coastal flooding to Canada

CNN

By Nouran Salahieh, CNN

(CNN) — Post-tropical cyclone Lee continues to bring heavy rain, wind and coastal flooding to parts of Canada’s Atlantic provinces on Sunday, knocking out power to tens of thousands, lashing the coasts with big waves and spurring calls to stay indoors.

Lee, once a powerful hurricane, is churning maximum sustained winds of 45 mph as it spreads north after making landfall Saturday on Long Island in Nova Scotia, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm is expected to move to the northeast over Newfoundland on Sunday afternoon while gradually weakening over the next couple days, bringing improved conditions to rain and wind-battered parts of Canada and the northeast US.

Tropical storm force winds extend about 290 miles from what’s left of Lee’s core on Sunday, the hurricane center said, and the threat of downed trees and power lines persists.

In Canada, 105,000 customers were without power Sunday in Nova Scotia, while 38,000 in New Brunswick were in the dark, according to an outage map by Nova Scotia Power.

In Maine – where winds of 83 mph were recorded in Perry, and 63 mph in Roque Bluffs – more than 40,000 homes and businesses were without power, according to PowerOutage.us. Outages there peaked Saturday with more than 90,000 customers in the dark, and photos from across the state showed toppled trees near homes and on roadways as powerful winds battered the area.

Utility power crews were out assessing damages and actively responding to downed utility lines and other damage caused by the storm Saturday.

Another inch of rain is expected over parts of eastern New Brunswick, according to the hurricane center. Officials there had cautioned residents to prepare for power outages and stock up on food and medication for at least 72 hours as they encouraged people to stay indoors during what they forecast would likely turn into a storm surge for coastal communities.

“Once the storm starts, remember please stay at home if at all possible,” Kyle Leavitt, director of New Brunswick Emergency Measures Organization, said Friday ahead of the storm. “Nothing good can come from checking out the big waves and how strong the wind truly is.”

In the US, states of emergency were declared in Maine and Massachusetts. President Joe Biden has authorized the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to step in to coordinate disaster relief and assistance for required emergency measures.

Boston’s Logan International Airport saw a spike in flight cancellations Saturday with 23% of all flights into Boston and 24% of flights originating out of the city canceled, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.

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CNN’s Artemis Moshtaghian and Maria Sole Campinoti contributed to this report.