Hurricane Lee raced past the New England coast to make landfall in Canada Saturday afternoon.
The northeastern United States dodged the predicted worst of the destructive Lee, which was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone early Saturday, but still brought fearsome winds as high as 93 miles per hour as it barreled northward.
“There have been some pretty impressive wind gusts,” Fox Weather meteorologist Cody Braud told The Post. “We got 93 miles per hour from Grand Manan Island, just off the coast of New Brunswick.”
The post-tropical cyclone made its first official landfall on Long Island, Nova Scotia, lashing the thin strip of land with 70 mph winds, Braud said.
The storm was expected to charge across the Bay of Fundy toward New Brunswick to make landfall again near the coastal city of St. John.
“Nova Scotia is seeing the worst right now, and the winds will decrease as it goes north,” he said.
As of Saturday afternoon, over 141,000 homes and businesses lacked electricity in Nova Scotia and more than 26,000 in New Brunswick, according to Poweroutage.us.
Hurricane Lee was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone as it raced toward Maritime Canada. AP
Wind gusts were recorded as high as 93 miles per hour in New Brunswick and 83 miles per hour in Maine. AP
Braud said much of Lee’s impact Saturday morning was along the Maine coast, with 10- to 20-foot waves slamming the shoreline as 83 mph wind gusts were recorded in the far eastern town of Perry.
Flash and coastal flooding alerts were also in place in the Pine Tree state.
As of Saturday afternoon, nearly 96,000 homes and businesses in Maine were without electricity, according to Poweroutage.us, with additional reports of downed trees.
Over 71,000 households in Maine were without power as of late Saturday morning. APOff the coast of Massachusetts, tropical-force-storm winds whipped through Nantucket and Boston, Braud said, with reports of a fallen tree crushing a couple of cars in the state but, so far, no more significant damage.
Following the harrowing predictions of a destructive hurricane earlier in the week, New Englanders cheekily flaunted the minimal damage sustained.
“We will rebuild,” online news outlet Nantucket Current captioned a 6-second clip, posted on X, which featured a toppled porta potty in a small pool of water in a parking lot amid ripping winds.
The governors of Maine and Massachusetts had declared states of emergency ahead of the storm. REUTERSThe I-95 corridor is predicted to get a brief reprieve Sunday with “a really nice day,” before a coastal low brings heavy rain late Monday to Tuesday morning, Braud said.
“We get one day of relax, and then [we’re] dealing with more impactful weather as we start off the work week,” he said.
