Hurricane Lee slammed into New England and eastern Canada as a powerful Category 1 storm early Saturday, forcing fishermen to flee its path and retreat back to their ports.
Lee was packing winds of 80 mph and creating 20-foot sea waves in the north Atlantic as it churned up the coast, where it was expected to weaken slightly to a tropical storm before hitting Nova Scotia on Saturday evening.
The extensive storm is forecast to be more than 400 miles wide when it makes landfall, with winds still in excess of 40-65 mph and heavy rain likely to cause power outages and coastal flooding, forecasters said.
In the popular fishing and tourism town of Bar Harbor, Maine, only two lobster boats remained in the water Friday compared to the two dozen usually seen under normal conditions.
“There will be big white rollers coming in on 50 to 60 mph winds. It’s going to be pretty entertaining,” Lobsterman Bruce Young, who had his 38-foot boat being transferred to a local airport, told the Associated Press.
Hurricane Lee continued its slow west-northwest track across the Atlantic Ocean, creating ocean waves as high as 20 feet as it went.AP
Hurricanes rarely make it this far north in the Atlantic.AP
On Long Island, commercial lobster fisherman Steve Train has just finished hauling 200 traps out of the water. He said he planned to wait out the storm on an island in Casco Bay, but was not concerned about his safety.
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey and Maine Governor Janet Mills have both declared states of emergency and asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to issue emergency declarations ahead of a disaster.
Lee will arrive just days after a thunderstorm caused massive flooding and tornadoes in New England, inundating the land.
Hurricane Lee hit New England and eastern Canada as a powerful Category 1 storm. FOX Weather
“As we have seen in recent weeks, bad weather is not to be taken lightly. Flooding, wind damage, downed trees, tree limbs — all of these things pose real dangers and problems for people,” Healey said.
In Maine, the most forested state, officials are also worried about power outages.
Utility workers from as far away as Tennessee are preparing to deploy to New England on Friday.
Areas of New England could face massive power outages if the storm makes landfall. FOX Weather
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is meeting with incident response teams ahead of the storm’s landfall on Friday.
Hurricanes rarely make it this far north in the Atlantic.
The last storm to make landfall in New England as a hurricane was Bob in 1991, which caused widespread damage across Cape Cod before turning north toward Maine.
By Post wire
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
