Lethal Atlantic storm Lee delivers excessive winds and rain earlier than forecasters name off warnings in some areas

BAR HARBOR, Maine — Atlantic storm Lee — which made landfall at near-hurricane power, bringing harmful winds and torrential rains to New England and Maritime Canada — stored weakening Sunday after officers withdrew some warnings and predicted the storm would disappear early this week.

The U.S. Nationwide Hurricane Middle stated Sunday morning that the post-tropical cyclone was about 70 miles west-northwest of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and about 180 miles west of Channel-Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland. The highest sustained wind pace had dropped to 45 mph with some increased gusts anticipated.

“Gradual weakening is forecast throughout the subsequent couple of days, and Lee may dissipate on Tuesday,” the U.S. hurricane middle stated.

The sky was sunny in Maine on Sunday morning, the place 5% of electrical energy clients have been nonetheless with out energy, down from 11% by noon Saturday throughout the peak of the storm. In Canada, 18% of Nova Scotia had no electrical energy, down from 27% on Saturday. The determine was 3% in New Brunswick, down from 8%, and fewer than 1% in Prince Edward Island, down from 3%.

The middle discontinued a tropical storm warning for the coast of Maine late Saturday and reported the Canadian Hurricane Centre had ended its tropical storm warning for New Brunswick and components of Prince Edward Island.

Storm surges have been anticipated to subside on Sunday after being forecast as as much as 3 toes Saturday alongside coastal areas, the hurricane middle stated.

A 51-year-old motorist in Searsport, Maine, died Saturday after a big tree limb fell on his automobile on U.S. Freeway 1 throughout excessive winds. The limb introduced down dwell energy traces and utility employees needed to minimize energy earlier than eradicating the person, who died later at a hospital, Police Chief Brian Lunt stated.

A driver suffered minor accidents Saturday, after a tree downed by Lee went by means of his windshield on Route 11 in Moro Plantation, Maine, in keeping with Maine State Police. John Yoder, 23, of Apple Creek, Ohio, tried to cease however couldn’t keep away from the tree. Yoder suffered minor cuts however the different 5 passengers within the van weren’t injured. Police blamed excessive winds for the downed tree.

The storm was tracked as transferring round 22 mph and anticipated to proceed northeast, taking the climate system throughout the Canadian Maritimes. Rainfall was anticipated to be a further 1 inch or much less for components of jap Maine, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, the U.S. storm middle stated.

A tropical storm warning remained in impact for components of Nova Scotia, the Magdalen Islands and Prince Edward Island with robust winds presumably resulting in downed bushes and energy outages, the middle stated.

In Bar Harbor, Maine, the touristy gateway to Acadia Nationwide Park, a whale watch vessel broke freed from its mooring and crashed ashore Saturday. Authorities labored to dump 1,800 gallons of diesel gas to forestall it from spilling into the ocean.

Lee flooded coastal roads in Nova Scotia and took ferries out of service whereas fanning anxiousness in a area nonetheless reeling from wildfires and extreme flooding this summer time. The province’s largest airport, Halifax Stanfield Worldwide, canceled all flights.

“Persons are exhausted,” stated Pam Lovelace, a council member in Halifax. “It’s a lot in such a small time interval.”

Hurricane-force winds prolonged so far as 140 miles from Lee’s middle, with tropical storm-force winds extending so far as 320 miles, sufficient to cowl all of Maine and far of Maritime Canada.

The storm skirted a few of the most waterlogged areas of Massachusetts that skilled extreme flash flooding days earlier, when quick water washed out roads, prompted sinkholes, broken houses and flooded automobiles.

In jap Maine, winds died down sufficient by late afternoon Saturday for utility employees to start utilizing bucket vehicles to make repairs.

Your complete area has skilled an particularly moist summer time, rating second within the variety of wet days in Portland, Maine — and Lee’s excessive winds toppled bushes pressured by the rain-soaked floor in Maine, the nation’s most closely wooded state.

Cruise ships discovered refuge at berths in Portland, Maine, whereas lobstermen in Bar Harbor and elsewhere pulled traps from the water and hauled boats inland.

Billy Bob Faulkingham, House 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 pair 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.

Lee shared some traits with 2012’s Superstorm Sandy. Each storms have been once-strong hurricanes that turned post-tropical cyclones — cyclonic storms which have misplaced most of their tropical traits — earlier than landfall. However Sandy prompted billions of {dollars} in injury and was blamed for dozens of deaths in New York and New Jersey.

Lee additionally was not 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.

Harmful hurricanes are comparatively uncommon up to now north. The Nice New England Hurricane of 1938 introduced gusts as excessive as 186 mph and sustained winds of 121 mph at Massachusetts’ Blue Hill Observatory. There have been no storms that highly effective in recent times.