Hurricane Watch Ends in Maine as Kyle Heads to Canada

MACHIAS, Maine — Fishermen moved boats to shelter from a rare burst of tropical weather along Maine’s rugged eastern coast today as a weakening Hurricane Kyle spun past on its way to Canada, threatening a glancing blow equivalent to a classic nor’easter.A hurricane watch for Maine was discontinued today, but a tropical storm warning remained in effect from Stonington, at the mouth of Penobscot Bay, to Eastport on the Canadian border, the National Hurricane Center said. The Canadian Hurricane Centre issued a hurricane warning for parts of southwestern Nova Scotia, with tropical storm warnings for parts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.The Category 1 storm’s track was expected to bring its center ashore in New Brunswick late Sunday, but by then it is expected to be less than hurricane strength, Peter Bowyer of the Canadian center in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, said.There were no immediate plans for evacuations in Maine, although residents were warned of potential power outages and interruptions in ferry services to islands. Flooding closed roads in eastern Maine.Heavy rain lashed the state today for a third straight day. As much as 5.5 inches had already fallen along coastal areas. Flood watches were in effect for the southern two-thirds of New Hampshire and southern Maine through this evening.Maine emergency responders had been bracing for wind gusts as high as 60 mph and waves up to 20 feet, but as the storm pushed toward the Canadian Maritime Provinces, it became clear that the state was escaping a direct hit.Officials still expect strong winds and “the attendant power outages,” a spokeswoman for the Maine Emergency Management Agency, Lynette Miller, said this evening. “We’re cautiously optimistic that things will not be as bad as we originally feared.”Residents of the area, which New Englanders refer to as Down East, are accustomed to rough weather, but it most often comes in the winter when nor’easters howl along the coast. Maine hasn’t had anything like a hurricane since Bob was downgraded as it moved into the state in 1991 after causing problems in southern New England.While residents took precautions, many weren’t impressed by Kyle.“It probably won’t be much different than a Nor’easter except we don’t have to deal with the snow,” Jesse Davis of Marshfield, who planned to ride out the wind and rain at home with his wife and 2-month-old daughter, said. He gassed up his vehicles and generator, took in his deck furniture, and filled up water jugs, but said that’s what he does for any big storm.“Down East we get storms with 50 to 60 mph winds every winter. Those storms can become ferocious,” the Washington County Emergency Management Agency Director, Michael Hinerman, said. Down East is the rugged, sparsely populated area from about Bar Harbor to the Canadian border.Many lobstermen moved their boats to sheltered coves, a lobsterman on Beals Island, Dwight Carver, said. Some also moved lobster traps from shallow water.“I’m sure we’ll have a lot of snarls, a lot of mess, to take care of when it’s done,” Mr. Carver said. “It’ll take us a few days to straighten things out.”In Lubec, the easternmost town in America, town workers pulled up docks and fishermen moved boats across the harbor into Campobello Island, New Brunswick, which has coves and wharves that offer shelter.At 8 p.m. EDT today, Kyle was centered near the western tip of Nova Scotia, about 80 miles southeast of the coastal border of Maine and New Brunswick, the National Hurricane Center said. It was moving north at nearly 30 mph and was weakening. Kyle’s maximum sustained winds were nearly 75 mph, or just barely hurricane strength.Emergency Measures officials in New Brunswick were concerned that people living inland were not taking the storm warnings seriously enough.“We’re talking to people on the street and they’re shrugging this off,” a spokesman, Ernie MacGillvray, said.He noted that the storm system was hundreds of miles wide. “They need to understand there’s going to be a whole bunch of impact and it could be a few days before phones and power is restored,” Mr. MacGillvray said.The deadliest storm to hit the Northeast was in 1938 when a hurricane killed 700 people and destroyed 63,000 homes on New York’s Long Island and throughout New England. Other hurricanes that have hit Maine were Carol and Edna in 1954, Donna in 1960, and Gloria in 1985.A hurricane watch means hurricane conditions, with wind of at least 74 mph, are possible within 36 hours. A tropical storm warning means conditions for that type of storm, with wind of between 39 and 73 mph, are expected within the next 24 hours.

Hurricane Watch Ends in Maine as Kyle Heads to Canada

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