Cleanup from Lee continues as thousands remain without power in Nova Scotia

Cleanup work continuesafter post-tropical storm Lee blew through the region, with thousands of residents still without power in Nova Scotia.

More than 7,000Nova Scotia Power customers were still without electricity Monday night. Some estimated restoration times were as late as 11 p.m.

More than half of Nova Scotia Power customers 277,000 were affectedby power outages throughout the storm, which began blowingthrough the region Friday evening.

The National Hurricane Center in the U.S. said the storm made landfall in Long Island, N.S., around 4 p.m. Saturday, with maximum sustained winds of 110 km/h.

• If the power or data on your device is low,get your storm updates on text-only CBC Lite.

Top wind gusts of 117 km/h were recorded at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport,while southwestern Nova Scotia saw gusts of between 90 and 110 km/hand between 30 and60 millimetres of rainfall.

There wereno reports ofmajor infrastructure damageor ofmissing people, injuries or deaths. Lee did claim the life of at least one person south of the border a 51-year-old motorist in Mainediedafter a largetree limb fell on his vehicle Saturday.

All roads in the Halifax area were open, and the Halifax Public Gardens and Point Pleasant Park reopened Monday. Camp Hill Cemetery will remain closed until further notice.

"There are still areas in several municipal parks that require clean up from downed trees and debris from the storm," the city said on its website."Residents are reminded to adhere to signage and to stay clear of barricaded areas."

Halifax, Truro, New Glasgowand the western part of the province, which includes the South Shore, the Annapolis Valley,Digby, Yarmouth and Shelburne County, were hardest hit by the storm, Nova Scotia Powersaid in a release.

The most powerful images of Lee's aftermath in Nova Scotia

1 year ago

Duration 0:57

Post-tropical storm Lee made landfall in Nova Scotia this weekend, bringing heavy rain and powerful winds. Here's a look at some of the aftermath across the province.

Carolyn Bolivar-Getson, the mayor of the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg, said Lee did more damage to the shoreline in that regionthan Hurricane Juan, a powerful storm that swept through the province in 2003.

"I spoke with a lot of the residents that have lived there their entire lives and they have said that this was definitely by far the worst storm that they have experienced so far," Bolivar-GetsontoldCBC Nova Scotia News at Six.

Rissers Beach Provincial Park, a popular seaside campingdestinationin Petite Rivire, N.S.,on the province's South Shore, was extensively damaged by the storm surge, and is closed until further notice.

Rob Paddock oftheprovincial Department of Natural Resourcessaid there is substantial damage to infrastructure including the boardwalk and numerous trees were uprooted.

The province said a small timber bridge on Green Bay Road near Petit Rivire wasdamaged, butcrews were able to reopenone lane.

"In that area, now Green Bay, it lifted the armour rock up. It destroyed the road. It just peeled the asphalt away. It flung rocks back on people's lawns. [A provincial crew]was there yesterday trying to rough in a road and they were successful in doing that, so that people were able to move back and forth. But until that time it was rock climbing," Bolivar-Getson said.

No other roads or bridges were significantly damaged, but four provincial roads wereclosed Monday, mostly due to rocks and debris. Four other provincial roads werepassable with caution and all ferries were back in service.

The province said there wereno significant costs expected from this work.

He said staff were doing a full assessment of the damage on Monday, as well as beginning to clean up.

"All of our beach parks get damaged with every major storm event.... But I would say in Lunenburg,for me, Rissers wasthe park that got the brunt of the storm," saidPaddock, adding there wasno estimate for when the park would reopen.

Provincial camping parks were closed on Friday ahead of the storm. Paddock said a number of parks wouldremain closed for days or even weeks. Eight parks, however, were open as of 2 p.m. Monday. They are:

• Battery Provincial Park.
• Blomidon Provincial Park.
• CaribouMunroes Island Provincial Park.
• Ellenwood Lake Provincial Park.
• Mira River Provincial Park.
• Porters Lake Provincial Park.
• Valleyview Provincial Park.
• Whycocomagh Provincial Park.

CBC meteorologist Ryan Snoddon said the heaviest rain fell northwest of Lee's track, where amounts of 50 to 100 millimetres or more were recorded.