BAR HARBOR, Maine (AP)-- Storm Lee fell trees and cut power to tens of thousands Saturday as it started lashing New England and eastern Canada, threatening hurricane-force winds, hazardous browse and downpours as its center spun closer.
Extreme conditions were predicted throughout parts of Massachusetts and Maine, and typhoon conditions might hit the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
The storm, still harmful after being devalued from cyclone to post-tropical cyclone, was expected to make landfall near or just east of the U.S.-Canada border Saturday afternoon, then rely on the northeast and cross Atlantic Canada on Saturday night and Sunday.
In Maine, the nation's most heavily forested state, the ground was saturated and trees were already weakened by heavy summertime rains. There were reports of trees down in eastern Maine, according to Todd Foisy, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
" We have a long method to go, and we're currently seeing downed trees and power failures," Foisy stated Saturday.
The storm's center was simply off the southwestern pointer of Nova Scotia, about 105 miles (170 kilometers) southeast of Eastport, Maine, and about 150 miles (240 kilometers) southwest of Halifax, Nova, Scotia, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said at 11 a.m. EDT Saturday. It had maximum sustained winds of 75 miles per hour (120 kph), simply over hurricane strength, which is 74 miles per hour (119 kph), and was moving north at a fast clip of near 22 miles per hour (35 kph).
Federal help is headed to Massachusetts after President Joe Biden stated an emergency situation Saturday.
A hurricane cautioning stretched from the New Hampshire-Maine border through Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island to northern New Brunswick. A cyclone watch was in effect for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
Utilities reported almost 200,000 customers without power from Maine to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia's biggest airport, Halifax Stanfield International, had no inbound or outgoing flights scheduled Saturday.
Cruise ships found haven at berths in
Portland, while lobstermen in Bar Harbor and in other places pulled their costly traps from the water and carried their boats inland, leaving some harbors looking like ghost towns on Friday.
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2 lobstermen-- one of them Billy Bob Faulkingham, House Republican leader of the Maine Legislature-- endured after their boat reversed while transporting traps Friday ahead of the storm, officials said.
The boat's emergency situation locator beacon informed authorities, and the two fishermen clung to the hull of the overturned boat up until help arrived, said Winter Harbor Police Chief Danny Mitchell. The 42-foot boat sank.
" They're really lucky to be alive," he stated.
Lee lashed the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Bahamas and Bermuda prior to turning northward, and heavy swells were most likely to cause "life-threatening browse and rip present conditions" in the U.S. and Canada, according to the typhoon center.
Parts of seaside Maine could see waves as much as 15 feet (4.5 meters) high crashing down, causing erosion and damage, and the strong gusts will trigger power blackouts, said Louise Fode, a National Weather Service meteorologist. As much as 5 inches (12 centimeters) of rain was anticipated for eastern Maine, where a flash flood watch was in effect.
Even as they prepared, New Englanders appeared mostly unconcerned. In Maine, where people are accustomed to damaging winter season nor'easter s, some brushed aside the coming Lee as something similar to those storms, just without the snow.
" There's going to be huge white rollers coming in on top of 50- to 60-mph winds. It'll be quite entertaining," Bar Harbor lobsterman Bruce Young said Friday. Still, he had his boat relocated to the local airport, stating it's better to be safe than sorry.
On Long Island, commercial lobsterman Steve Train ended up carrying 200 traps out of the water on Friday. Train, who is also a firemen, was going to suffer the storm on the island in Casco Bay.
He was not concerned about staying there in the storm. "Not one bit," he said.
In Canada, Ian Hubbard, a meteorologist for Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Canadian Hurricane Centre, stated Lee will not be anywhere near as extreme as the residues of Hurricane Fiona, which a year ago washed homes into the ocean, knocked out power to the majority of 2 provinces and swept a female into the sea.
However it was still a dangerous storm. Kyle Leavitt, director of the New Brunswick Emergency Management Organization, urged locals to stay home, stating, "Nothing good can originate from checking out the huge waves and how strong the wind genuinely is."
Destructive typhoons are relatively unusual this far to the north. The Great New England Hurricane of 1938 brought gusts as high as 186 miles per hour (300 kph) and continual winds of 121 mph (195 kph) at Massachusetts' Blue Hill Observatory. However there have been no storms that effective over the last few years.
The region discovered the difficult method with Hurricane Irene in 2011 that damage isn't always confined to the coast. Devalued to a hurricane, Irene still triggered more than $800 million in damage in Vermont.
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