One dead in Maine after Hurricane Lee landfall, thousands without power – latest

About 144,000 people were without power on Saturday after strong winds due to storm Lee downed trees. In neighboring New Brunswick, 37,000 people had no electricity.

“Crews have been able to restore power to some customers … however, conditions are getting worse,” Matt Drover of the Nova Scotia electric utility told Reuters.

“In many cases, especially when winds are above 80 kmph, it isn’t safe for our crews.”

In a social media post, Nova Scotia police said they had received reports of drivers heading to the coast to watch the waves, which they said was dangerous.

Heavy downpour is expected to continue through Sunday in the Prince Edward Island province of Canada, the forecasters said.

Storm Lee made landfall in far western Nova Scotia, with winds whipping at 70mph, which killed one person and left thousands without electricity.

Lee is on track to turn northeast and pass over Saturday night into Sunday, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

Hurricane Lee made landfall in Western Novia Scotia on Saturday, as millions in New England and Canada have been preparing for its devastation.

Maximum sustained winds were at 70mph, as of 4pm when the storm reached land about 50 miles from Eastport, Maine and about 135 miles from Halifax, Nova Scotia, according to the National Hurricane Center.

A teenager drowned while in rough waters of the Atlantic on Wednesday, authorities in Florida said.

The 15-year-old was with two other people when he fell off a raft, Fernandina Beach Police Department told Fox Weather.

The other two were brought back to the shore and rushed to a local medical centre while authorities searched for the missing teen.

The group had ventured into the ocean despite multiple red flags warnings about the rough waters ahead of storm Lee’s landfall.

Billy Bob Faulkingham, House Republican leader of the Maine Legislature, and another lobsterman survived after their boat overturned while hauling traps ahead of the storm, officials said.

The boat’s emergency locator beacon alerted authorities, and the two clung to the hull until help arrived, said Winter Harbor Police chief Danny Mitchell. The 42-foot boat sank.“They’re very lucky to be alive,” Mr Mitchell said.

Forecasters urged residents to stay home, but many ventured out anyway.

Betsy Follansbee and her husband, Fred, jogged to Higgins Beach in Scarborough, Maine, to watch surfers — some wearing helmets — paddling out to catch waves reaching 12 feet.

They were the biggest waves Follansbee has seen in her 10 years living there, she said.“We’re impressed that they’re bold enough to try,” Ms Follansbee said.

When it comes to hurricanes, New England can’t compete with Florida or the Caribbean.

But scientists said Friday the arrival of storms like Hurricane Lee this weekend could become more common in the region as the planet warms, including in places such as the Gulf of Maine.

One recent study found climate change could result in hurricanes expanding their reach more often into mid-latitude regions, which include New York, Boston and even Beijing.

The study says the factors include warmer sea surface temperatures in these regions and the shifting and weakening of the jet streams, which are the strong bands of air currents encircling the planet in both hemispheres.

Thousands of people were left without power as storm Lee made landfall in Nova Scotia, flooding roads and fanning anxiety in a region still reeling from wildfires and severe flooding this summer.

The province’s largest airport, Halifax Stanfield International, cancelled all flights.

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

The storm was so big that it caused power outages several hundred miles from its center. At midday Saturday, 11 per cent of electricity customers in Maine lacked power, along with 27 per cent of Nova Scotia, 8 per cent of New Brunswick and 3 per cent of Prince Edward Island.

Hurricane-force winds extended as far as 140 miles from Lee’s center, with tropical storm-force winds extending as far as 320 miles — enough to cover all of Maine and much of Maritime Canada.

A 51-year-old motorist in Searsport, Maine, died after a large tree limb fell on his vehicle Saturday on US Highway 1 during a period of high winds, the first fatality attributed to the storm.

The tree limb brought down live power lines, and utility workers had to cut power before the man could be removed, said Police chief Brian Lunt. The unidentified man died later at a hospital, he said.