Maritimes await encounter with powerful storm
CBC News
Forecasters expect Hurricane Kyle to weaken slightly to tropical storm status before it brushes across the southern tip of Nova Scotia and makes landfall in New Brunswick just west of Saint John, sometime late Sunday or early Monday morning.
The storm could remain powerful enough, however, to uproot trees, erode soil in coastal areas and cause power outages as it makes landfall around the New Brunswick communities of Grand Manan, St. Stephen and Point Lepreau after midnight local time.
Kyle is expected to weaken as it crosses over colder northern waters and makes landfall overnight, but it will still bring heavy rain and maximum winds of 120 km/h. The storm grew to a Category 1 hurricane over the Atlantic Ocean off the U.S. coast on Saturday evening, forecasters said.
Officials in Maine issued the state's first hurricane watch in 17 years for coastal areas, according to the U.S. National Weather Service. The storm is aimed directly for Saint John, according to Guy Roussel, a meteorologist at the Canadian Hurricane Centre. Kyle is expected to lash the Maritimes with up to 140 mm of rain.
"Rainfalls will be kind of torrential in some areas. Within 12 hours you could get up to 100 mm of rain," Roussel said. "That would cause rivers to flood too and also cause flooding in the city, a lot of run-off and conditions like that."
A hurricane watch was issued for Shelburne, Yarmouth and Digby counties in southwestern Nova Scotia. A tropical storm watch is in place for the rest of the province and southwestern New Brunswick, according to the Canadian Hurricane Centre.
At 8 a.m. ET Sunday, Kyle was centred about 265 kilometres south-southeast of Nantucket, or about 700 kilometres southwest of Halifax, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. In New Brunswick, officials with the Emergency Measures Organization are warning that the heavy rain may result in rapid increases in water levels in streams and rivers, and localized flash flooding.
They're anticipating power outages and urging people to prepare to be self-sufficient for 72 hours. Maritime Electric officials on Prince Edward Island also say heavy rain and high winds could mean a number of outages. The Canadian Red Cross is reminding Islanders they should prepare with emergency supplies to last three days.