Lee pummels toward the Maritimes, with flooding, high waves and power outages

Post-tropical storm Lee is pummeling towards the Maritimes Saturday, bringing with it flooding, high waves and power outages affecting more than 170,000 homes as of noon.

Lee has been downgraded from a hurricane to a post-tropical storm, with the centre of the storm expected to make landfall between Nova Scotia’s Shelburne and Yarmouth counties in the afternoon.

The change in storm designation refers to the structure of the storm and does not lessen the expected impacts.

Some areas of southwestern region of Nova Scotia are already experiencing significant storm surges, with waves crashing into coastal roadways.

As of about 12 p.m., there were 135,100 houses without power in Nova Scotia, more than 35,600 homes in the dark in New Brunswick, and about 50 customers with no power on P.E.I.In Saint John N.B.’s Kings Square, a large tree has been knocked down as post-tropical storm Lee heads towards the region. Pictured Sept. 16, 2023. (CTV Atlantic/Avery MacRae).

No outages were reported by Newfoundland Power as of 12 p.m.

Environment Canada said that areas along Nova Scotia’s central Atlantic coast could see breaking waves of between four and six metres, and storm surge warnings were in effect from Shelburne County eastward to Guysborough County.

Nova Scotia RCMP are asking drivers to stay off the roads. Police said they’ve been receiving reports of drivers heading to the coast to watch the waves.

“This action is putting themselves at risk along with First Responders in the event of rescue attempts,” said RCMP in a post on social media.

A hurricane watch is in place for Grand Manan Island and coastal Charlotte County, N.B., and for most of Nova Scotia’s Atlantic coast, stretching from Digby County through to Halifax County, while a tropical storm warning remains in effect for most of Nova Scotia and for New Brunswick’s Bay of Fundy coast and parts of the province along the Northumberland Strait.

The storm is forecast to bring more than 100 millimetres of rain in some areas, and Environment Canada is warning of possible flooding in parts of southwestern Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, including Saint John and Moncton.

Wind gusts could reach 120 kilometres an hour, which may topple trees, down power lines and result in structural damage.

With files from The Canadian Press.

Click here for a photo gallery of the impact of post-tropical storm Lee in the Maritime provinces.