Storm Lee moved through Nova Scotia and New Brunswick on Saturday. The weather system brought strong winds and large amounts of rain, causing extensive damage.
Flooded roads, thousands of outages and downed trees are the result of the storm, which made landfall on Long Island, an island in southwestern Nova Scotia, around 4 p.m.
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Early in the day, forecasts suggested the trajectory would directly hit the Yarmouth area, but Lee deviated slightly to the west, much to the relief of Danny Muise, bailiff of neighboring Argyle.
We were ready to take emergency measures if we had to open comfort centers, but that did not happen, he said.
Lee is currently northeast of Yarmouth and continues south into New Brunswick.
The system will weaken as it moves east of Anticosti Island and toward the west coast of Newfoundland.
Damage is reported
Many trees have fallen and authorities are reporting local flooding in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
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A tree smashed by Lee’s winds fell onto Woodstock Street in Fredericton on Saturday.
Photo: The Canadian Press / Stephen MacGillivray
Residents are asked to avoid non-essential travel until the storm passes so that first responders can do their jobs.
Near Fredericton, the roof of a gas station collapsed and Regent Street was partially flooded.
For the next few hours, central New Brunswick and the northeast will be monitored, says Tom Lévesque of the New Brunswick Emergency Measures Organization.
Buildings and trees were damaged by winds in the greater Fredericton area, including this gas station in New Maryland.
Photo: Radio-Canada
Lee is actually a large system, says meteorologist Jim Price.
The system brought a lot of wind from the east and a lot of rain from the west [de sa trajectoire]he says.
Multiple glitches
As of late Saturday afternoon, more than 175,000 customers were still without power, most of them in Nova Scotia.
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On Saturday morning, September 16, 2023, Nova Scotia Power crews were on scene to repair downed power lines on Route 8 in the Milton area of Halifax.
Photo: Courtesy of Nova Scotia Power
In a statement released Saturday morning, Nova Scotia Power said the outages were due to falling trees and strong winds that reached 100 km/h in the west of the province and up to 90 km/h in the center. -City of Halifax. More than 700 employees are working to assess and repair the damage.
On the telecom side, users noted intermittent services. According to an email from the Bell company, cell service overload is caused by power outages, forcing users to rely on the cell phone network.
With information from CBC, Martine Blanchard, Héloïse Rodriguez Qizilbash and Marie-Ève Bégin