High winds topple trees in Nova Scotia

A wind warning was in effect for much of Nova Scotia on Thursdayas a so-called weather bomb moved across the region, knocking out power to thousands.

High winds and heavy rain pummelled many areas of the province, toppling trees, ripping the roofs off buildings and sending debris flying into streets.

At the height of the power outages, morethan 31,000 homes and businesses were without electricity. The outages stretched from Shelburne to Sydney.

Halifax Harbour Bridges closed the MacKay Bridge to high-sided vehicles at one point because of the high winds.

Several streets were closed because of concerns about falling debris from buildings.

In Dartmouth, Alderney Drive was closed to all traffic and pedestrians between Ochterloney and Portland streets because of concern about falling debris from the Queen Square building.

The Cape Breton Regional Police Service closedCharlotte Street the main shopping and commercial streetin Sydneydue to flying debris from rooftops.

CBC meteorologist Kalin Mitchellwarned thewinds wouldpick up over the morning, with gustsof 90 km/h or 100 km/h.

"Gusts to 100 km/h now at Stanfield Airport and Brier Island. Brier Island dropped from 11 to 5 degrees in one hour!" he tweeted at 10:30 a.m.

Mitchell said there were gusts of 80 km/h in Yarmouth.

Mel Lemmon, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said the gusts are stronger than first expected.

"That's partly because it's a weather bomb, and partly because of the cold air that's going to push in behind it," he said.

A system is called a weather bomb when the barometric pressure at the centre of a storm plunges quickly.

The wind warning covered all counties in Nova Scotia except Digby, Annapolis and Kings.

The storm was expected to drop about 30 millimetres of rain on some areas.