Lee moves across southeastern New Brunswick overnight
Outage list of thousands gets shorter, but wind, rain continue to affect province overnight
While the effects of post-tropical storm Lee were felt in New Brunswick in the early hours of Saturday, the eye of the storm didn't reach the province until later Saturday night
Lee then began moving across southeastern New Brunswick, and heavy rain was continuing in places, according to the Canadian Hurricane Centre.
Lee made landfall in Nova Scotia around 4 p.m. at Long Island, and the eye was just south-southwest of Saint John at 9 p.m.
CBC meteorologist Ryan Snoddon said the storm would keep moving northward, but winds would begin to ease in New Brunswick overnight.
Wind warnings were still in effect during the evening, with gusts of 90 to 100 kilometres possible.
In New Brunswick, rain warnings were also still in effect.
During the day, bands of heavy rain and winds hit parts of New Brunswick, including the west up to Edmundston and across the north to Bathurst.
Environment Canada said southern New Brunswick could expect between 50 and 120 millimetres of rain from Lee, which transitioned from a hurricane to a post-tropical storm early Saturday morning.
"It's really been chaotic," Kyle Leavitt of the New Brunswick Emergency Measures Organization said in late afternoon.
The storm covers a vast area, but the effects have differed among the small pockets within the system. Even in the same pocket, the rain has regularly run the gamut from somewhat heavy to torrential and back again.
About 67,000 N.B. Power customers lost power at times, 38,000 at the peak, as trees fell on lines.
The number of customers without power continued to fall through the afternoon, reaching about 23,000 by 7 p.m. as crews work to repair some of the damaged lines.
N.B. Power spokesperson Dominique Couture said restoration can be hampered by road traffic and urged people not to travel unless necessary. She also said more outages were likely during the night.
Although Lee's predicted path has shifted a number of times, the eye of the storm was expected to reach New Brunswick to the east of Saint John in the St. Martins-Fundy Trail area. It was then expected to track overland toward the western tip of Prince Edward Island.
Snoddon said this "shift in track changes very little in the overall forecast, which is pretty much on par with what we expected."
He said the heaviest rain will continue in New Brunswick through the night.
Southwestern regions of New Brunswick, especially along exposed coastal areas got some of the strongest winds, with gusts of 89 to 120 kilometres per hour possible in those parts.
But throughout the morning and afternoon along the Bay of Fundy, the impact that Leavitt said most worried EMO had not materialized. At high tide in Saint Andrews, for instance, there were no white caps and little sign of devastation.
Mayor Brad Henderson said the worst damage occurred in the morning, when a lot of trees came down, but there was not so much damage along the shoreline. The town was still without power, he said, and the winds, which had subsided since morning, were picking up again.
By mid-afternoon, New Brunswick's Emergency Measures Organization had moved up to "enhanced monitoring" of Lee because of the strength of the storm.
According to the latest information from the Canadian Hurricane Centre, between 30 and 70 mm of rain had fallen over the southern Maritimes by early evening.
"Most areas of the province could see peak wind speeds today of between 60 to 80 km/h," EMO said. However, wind warnings have been issued for the Fundy coastline, where strong wind gusts of 90 to 120 km/h are expected."
Because of the size of the storm, EMO said "impacts will occur not only near the track but up to several hundred kilometres away from it."
In areas at risk, EMO said people should only travel for "essential purposes."
All Fundy Isles ferry services are suspended as are coastal ferry services to Grand Manan, Deer Island and White Head.
Trees are still in full leaf, meaning a greater chance of widespread power outages. Worst hit so far have been Carleton, Charlotte and Kings counties.
Trees had been uprooted by mid-morning in Saint John, including some in King's Square in the uptown.Trees across the city have fallen, according to a statement from city hall. Drivers were asked to find other routes rather than trying to drive around the trees.
Farther west along the Bay of Fundy, trees have fallen on power lines.
In the Fredericton area, RCMP said Route 102 in Island View is washed out, and traffic is being diverted.
Fredericton police said many of the city's traffic lights weren't working because of power outages. They said motorists should treat intersections without working lights as four-way stops.
On Friday, N.B. Power said a team of 700 personnel is prepared to tackle power restoration efforts as soon as it's safe to do so. By the end of the afternoon, fewer than 30,000 customers remained on the outage list.
Government officials urged people to stay inside and be safe, guidance that also prompted Harvest Music Festival organizers to cancel all shows on Saturday.
Officials asked residents to stay away from the coastline, limit travel to essential purposes, and report outages to N.B. Power when they happen.
With files from Hannah Rudderham, Julia Wright, Mia Urquhart and Alexandre Silberman