Hurricane Lee puts millions on alert as it stalks New England and Canada

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BAR HARBOR, Maine (AP) — Millions of people were under a storm watch or warning Saturday as Hurricane Lee approached New England and eastern Canada with strong winds, storm surge and rain.

Cruise ships sheltered in moorings in Portland, Maine, while lobstermen in Bar Harbor and elsewhere hauled their expensive traps from the sea and brought their boats ashore, giving some docks a ghostly appearance.

Electrical workers from as far away as Tennessee were preparing to repair any damage caused by Lee, which as of Friday night was still a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 128 kilometers per hour (80 miles per hour).

The storm is expected to skim the New England coast before making landfall later Saturday in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, which along with New Brunswick will bear the brunt. But the effects of the meteor could be felt over a much wider area. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) expects its hurricane-force winds to extend more than 161 km (100 miles) from the center, with minor but still dangerous gusts of tropical storm strength within a radius of up to 555 km (345 miles).

Authorities declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts and Maine, the most forested state in the country, where the terrain is saturated and trees weakened after intense summer rains.

Lee has already hit the US Virgin Islands, the Bahamas and Bermuda before turning north, where it could cause “life-threatening storm surge and rip conditions” in the US and Canada, according to the NHC.

Parts of the Maine coast could see 15-foot (4.5-meter) high waves causing erosion and damage, and strong winds could cause them, according to Louise Fode of the National Weather Service in the state. In the east, where there is an active flash flood warning, up to 12 centimeters (5 inches) of rain is expected.

In Canada, Ian Hubbard, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Canadian Hurricane Centre, said Lee will not be as devastating as the remnants of Hurricane Fiona, which swept homes into the ocean, knocked out power in two provinces and dragged a woman into the sea a year ago.

But it is still a dangerous storm. Kyle Leavitt, director of the New Brunswick Emergency Management Organization, asked residents to stay at home: “Nothing good can come from going out and seeing the big waves and how strong the wind is.”

Destructive hurricanes are relatively unusual this far north. In 1938, the Great New England Hurricane left gusts of up to 300 km/h (186 mph) with sustained winds of 195 km/h (121 mph) at the Blue Observatory in Massachusetts. But in recent years such powerful storms have not been recorded.

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Sharp and Whittle reported from Portland. Associated Press writer Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.