Preparing for Lee: ‘Tomorrow will be too late’ say officials as N.S. impacts will start before landfall
YARMOUTH, N.S. – With Lee arriving in Nova Scotia on Saturday — with landfall looking to be in Yarmouth County in the afternoon — people were being cautioned Friday to take this storm seriously, even as it transitions from a hurricane to a tropical or post-tropical storm.
They were also being urged not to wait until the last minute to prepare for this weather event, particularly in southwestern Nova Scotia.
“We should start to feel the impacts of this storm in southwestern Nova Scotia tonight,” said Bob Robichaud, a meteorologist with Environment Canada and the Canadian Hurricane Centre during a media briefing early Friday afternoon.
“So the time to prepare is certainly today. Tomorrow will be too late.”
About noon on Friday, the storm was just shy of 1,000 kilometres south-southwest of Halifax. Lee was slowly weakening, although maximum sustained winds at that time were still 130 kilometres per hour.
“This is a very, very large storm,” said Robichaud, noting that it appeared on Friday that Lee was making the transition to a post-tropical storm.
“A lot of people have the misconception that a post-tropical storm is somehow a lesser storm,” he said, but post-tropical only refers to the structure of the storm, not the intensity.
“We expect this storm, as it approaches and as it gets close to the coastline, it should be very close to hurricane strength, we’re thinking just below. It will still be a large storm, very near hurricane strength at the time, whether it’s tropical or post-tropical prior to arriving here.”
Robichaud said while the centre of the storm will most likely come through southwestern Nova Scotia, the impacts will be felt a great distance beyond where the centre actually tracks.
This will not be an in-and-out storm in the province, either.
“I’d say the worst conditions, you’re looking at about 12 hours,” he said. “All told, for many areas, it’s going to be more than 24 hours, even up to 36 hours, that you’re going to see some sort of gusty winds from the storm itself because it’s going to last into Sunday certainly for some areas.”
While southwestern Nova Scotia will have the highest winds and heaviest rainfall, hurricane watches on Friday associated with Lee were extended to Halifax and even into parts of the Eastern Shore.
“The modelling is kind of showing some of those stronger winds might expand up the coast,” said Robichaud, who said there will continue to be some tweaks to the forecast into Saturday.
Take Lee seriously
SaltWire weather specialist Allister Aalders was also urging people on Friday not to be complacent when it comes to how Lee is categorized. Just because a hurricane becomes a tropical storm or post-tropical does not mean the event will be less severe.
“We’ve seen that firsthand with Fiona. Fiona was post-tropical, not technically designated a hurricane, but it had winds equivalent of a Category 2 hurricane,” he said, noting Dorian was also post-tropical when it made landfall in 2019 but it still caused damage and prolonged power outages.
“It’s important to not get caught up in that designation of post-tropical. It’s just a change in structure. Lee will still be a very powerful storm,” he said.
“When it does make landfall, even though it’s expected to be tropical storm status, it’s only going to be about, possibly, nine kilometres short of a Category 1 hurricane,” he said late Friday morning. “So this is still a very strong and powerful storm and it certainly needs to be taken seriously, especially over the western half of Nova Scotia and particularly along the South Shore.”
Aalders said the track of Lee from the U.S. and Canadian hurricane centres had remained fairly consistent since Thursday.
“It does look like landfall will be in Yarmouth County,” he said, adding the timing has changed somewhat if it stays on its track, saying landfall could be the early part of Saturday afternoon.
He described Lee as very large, but from satellite images not having that “classic hurricane eye.”
Aalders said in southwestern Nova Scotia, particularly along the coastline of Yarmouth, Digby, Shelburne and Queens counties, and parts of Lunenburg County, as well as Halifax, wind gusts could reach 90 to 110 km/h, while inland in southwestern Nova Scotia sustained winds could fall in the 60-80 km/h range. For other parts of the province, sustained winds of 30 to 50 km/h are likely.
In very exposed parts of the coastline, like parts of Shelburne County, Aalders said you could see even stronger gusts.
“I’m talking places like Clark’s Harbour, Baccaro Point, Cape Sable Island, we could see winds top out near 120 or even 130 kilometres per hour.”
At other times, the winds will be deceiving, he said.
“It’s worth noting that as that centre approaches and moves over the Yarmouth County area, winds could actually decrease for a period of time because winds are generally weaker in the centre of storms like this,” he said. “So there could be some brief weakening but still gusty winds across the entire region throughout Saturday.”
Rain-wise, with Lee arriving earlier, its impacts will also be moving in sooner than expected.
“After midnight, it’s forecast that rain will be falling across most of Nova Scotia,” he said.
Rainfall amounts of 50 to 70 mm are forecast for western Nova Scotia during Lee, with parts of Shelburne and Queens counties possibly getting 75 to 100 mm.
At the other end of the province, Cape Breton is expected to receive lower rainfall totals, but some places could get 25 to 50 mm.
On Friday, Environment Canada had weather alerts out for much of the province and particularly for all of western Nova Scotia, including the southwestern tip, the South Shore, the Annapolis Valley, and also Halifax and Eastern Shore. Alerts included rain warnings, wind warnings, tropical storm warnings, surge warnings and hurricane watches, with some areas having all of these.
In Yarmouth County where Lee is tracked to make landfall Saturday, some businesses started announcing on Thursday that they will be closed on Saturday and Sunday. Ahead of Lee, businesses that sell generators were making posts about of many they had in stock.
Coastal Financial Credit Union alerted the public that for the safety of its members, and to prevent possible damage to its buildings during the storm, their ATMs will not be accessible on Saturday.
“Please make arrangements to get any cash needed by the end of the day on Friday,” a Facebook post said.
Municipalities and emergency officials in southwestern Nova Scotia are reminding people to have enough food and emergency supplies to last them 72 hours, particularly in cases of power outages.
People are asked to secure their properties and to take particular note of anything that could become projectiles in strong winds.
SHYFT House, which provides support to homeless and at-risk youth, is opening its house, located off of Argyle Street in Yarmouth, to any youth between the ages of 16 and 24 who don’t have a place to ride out Lee. It is also offering a drop-in centre at the Yarmouth Fire Hall on Pleasant Street for adults who are experiencing homelessness and/or find themselves displaced during Lee. This will be open from noon Saturday to noon Sunday. There will be tea, coffee, water and light refreshments.
If needed, towns and municipalities will also implement comfort centres in cases of power outages or emergencies. That information will come, they say, if Lee presents the need for them.
Bay Ferries canceled crossings of The CAT ferry between Yarmouth and Bar Harbor for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“We have been monitoring the trajectory of hurricane Lee as it moves northward up the Atlantic coast. The forecast now indicates swells, winds and waves that will affect our ability to safely operate,” the company says on its website.
It has also canceled Saturday’s crossing of the Fundy Rose between Digby and Saint John and also said all Northumberland Ferries’ Saturday crossings have been cancelled as well due to the forecast of strong winds.
The Canadian Red Cross says its staff and volunteers throughout Atlantic Canada are on standby to assist in their local areas or to deploy to other parts of the region, once safe to do so, based on the impacts of Lee and if they receive requests from provincial or municipal governments to equip and staff emergency or receptions centres, and/or offer forms of assistance to the public.
“As part of our preparations, we have already pre-positioned additional emergency shelter supplies such as cots, blankets, signage, personal care kits and other items to those areas most likely to see the greatest impacts according to the latest forecasts from the Canadian Hurricane Centre. In Nova Scotia this includes to our offices in Bridgewater, Yarmouth and Kentville,” says Dan Bedell, Red Cross communications director for the Atlantic Region.
Bedell says after Fiona last year there was also a need for some long-term care and nursing homes to temporarily evacuate some residents to other care facilities or even places like a residence building at Acadia University. The Red Cross has a bed loan program, which is a provincially funded program managed by the Red Cross in partnership with the Nova Scotia Health Authority.
“In case that happens again, we’ve pre-positioned additional beds and another delivery vehicle at our warehouse in Kentville, which serves the Bed Loan Program for southern and southwestern Nova Scotia,” Bedell says.
He says the Red Cross has also taken similar precautions in southwestern New Brunswick, such as sending shelter supplies to Grand Manan Island in case it’s significantly affected and ferry service to and from the island is disrupted.
“The Canadian Red Cross is in constant contact with provincial emergency management authorities of all four Atlantic provinces and participates in their operational updates, so we are all aware of the latest forecasts, impacts and preparedness, response and recovery activities to ensure a coordinated approach,” says Bedell.
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Nova Scotia Power activated its Emergency Operations Centre on Friday ahead of Lee and said it has positioned crews throughout the province, with the heaviest emphasis on western Nova Scotia where due to stronger winds power outages are more likely.
“The areas that we’re the most concerned about is the western end of the province – Digby, Yarmouth and Shelburne … so we’re pre-mobilizing all of our crews, all of our contractors, we’re bringing them in from other provinces, we’re bringing them to those locations,” said Matt Drover, senior director of energy delivery for Nova Scotia Power. “They’ll be spread throughout the entire province, but definitely the majority of the people will be down in the western part, ready to respond to power outages as soon as they occur.”
The outage line that people can report outages to is 1-877-428-6004. Nova Scotia Power will also have updates on its outage map.
More info regarding outages:
Outage map: https://outagemap.nspower.ca/external/default.html
Reporting Tool: https://nsp.ifactornotifi.com/ui/m/outage-reporting
With trees still in full leaf, this leads to greater possibility of uprooting, in addition to the fact that the ground throughout much of the province is saturated from heavy rains throughout the summer. That can also result in more trees being uprooted.
We’re packing up our trucks, completing maintenance, and our crews are getting ready to roll.
We have over 600 people in the field who are making their way to various parts of the province to get in position ahead of the storm. This includes power line technicians, forestry… pic.twitter.com/35jnCIYYSP
— Nova Scotia Power (@nspowerinc) September 15, 2023
Stay home during storm
Any storm event usually also brings out curiosity in people, with people driving or walking around to see what damage there’s been in their areas. Emergency officials are stressing for people to refrain from doing so.
“There’s a natural curiosity to go out there and take a look at what damage may have occurred and the intensity of the storm in your particular area, but as with past events we encourage people to stay at home, stay off the roads, don’t give into temptation and take a look around,” said Paul Mason, executive director of the Nova Scotia Emergency Management Office on Friday.
He said people venturing out put themselves at significant risk, especially if there are fallen trees and downed power lines. In addition to that, crews and first responders are already busy enough reacting to damage and emergencies without having added vehicle traffic or pedestrians to contend with – or added unnecessary emergencies because people didn’t stay home.
One obvious hazard is downed power lines. People are told to stay away from them.
“Downed power lines are definitely a safety concern. We recommend staying as far away from downed power lines as possible – lines on the ground, lines on vehicles – stay far away from that and put a call to our call centre right away,” said Drover. “We will send somebody out there to remove those power lines. Our people are trained in that and they take that safety very seriously.”
Preparing for Hurricane Lee
Nova Scotians are encouraged to make final preparations as hurricane Lee approaches the province.
“While the impacts of Lee may vary from one part of the province to another, no matter where we live, being prepared is the best thing we can do in advance of a storm,” said Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister John Lohr, Minister responsible for the Emergency Management Office, on Friday.
“At the Emergency Management Office, we’re also getting ready. We’re working with Environment Canada, other provincial departments, municipal emergency management offices and our other partners to gather information and identify potential local risks, as well as mobilizing resources in advance of the approaching storm,” he said.
Nova Scotians should monitor local weather forecasts and be prepared for power outages and potential flooding. A basic storm preparation checklist includes:
• having enough food and water for at least 72 hours
• monitoring media outlets and credible weather resources for updates
• securing gates, doors and windows
• moving yard furniture and securing trash cans, hanging plants and anything else that can be picked up by wind
• charging phones and other devices
• checking radio batteries
• filling vehicles with gas and parking them away from trees
• keeping pets inside
• moving any type of watercraft to high ground
• ensuring personal and family safety
• checking on neighbours
• if the power goes out, people should avoid using candles and never use barbecues, camp stoves or generators indoors.
