Hurricane Bill swipes Nova Scotia
Damage, some flooding, but brunt passes by
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/08/2009 (6149 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
PORT HAWKESBURY, N.S. — Hurricane Bill was on Dan Stewart’s tail as he drove his tractor-trailer from Halifax to Cape Breton on Sunday, but the seasoned driver from Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley said the big storm wasn’t a big deal.
"We missed the brunt of it," Stewart said with a shrug before getting a coffee at a Tim Hortons in Port Hawkesbury, a few minutes drive from the Canso Causeway, the gateway to Cape Breton. "I don’t think we got the full hit. Thank goodness."
All along Nova Scotia’s Atlantic coast, the Category 1 hurricane delivered steady downpours and strong winds, knocking out power, forcing cancellations of flights and events, and drawing onlookers hoping to catch a glimpse of crashing waves.
Bill ripped the branches from trees in Halifax and elsewhere, and there was some localized flooding.
But the storm didn’t appear to cause much damage as its eye remained off the coastline before heading for southeastern Newfoundland, where it was expected to make landfall over the Burin Peninsula late Sunday or early today.
It was projected to hit the island as a strong tropical storm, with diminished winds of at least 70 kilometres an hour.
However, with tides running high in the area, officials in Placentia, N.L., declared a state of emergency late in the day and said residents of low-lying areas would be evacuated.
Peter Bowyer of the Canadian Hurricane Centre said the hurricane packed sustained winds of 120 km/h over the ocean off Nova Scotia, but the highest gust on land by late afternoon Sunday was a less threatening 87 km/h outside Halifax.
Shortly before 6 p.m., three young men were swept off the rocks at the famed Peggy’s Cove lighthouse. As horrified onlookers watched, one of the men went under the churning sea but was pulled out by his buddies and the three were able to scramble to safety.
Power outages were reported throughout Nova Scotia, affecting more than 40,000 customers at one point,.
A large wave fuelled by Hurricane Bill swept spectators out to sea at Maine’s Acadia National Park Sunday, as the storm-churned surf attracted onlookers and daredevils along the Eastern Seaboard. A 7-year-old girl who was pulled from the sea later died and her father and 12-year-old sister were hospitalized.
— The Canadian Press