Post-Tropical Cyclone Lee rips 93 mph winds in Canada

Hurricane Lee was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone as the powerful storm as it raced past the New England coast toward Canada, where it was expected to finally make landfall later Saturday.

The northeastern United States dodged the predicted worst of the destructive Lee, which despite the downgrade, still boasted fearsome winds as high as 93 miles per hour while barreling northward.   

“There have been some pretty impressive wind gusts,” FOX Weather meteorologist Cody Braud told The Post. “We got 93 miles per hour from Grand Manan Island, just off the coast of New Brunswick.” 

Braud said much of Lee’s impact is being felt off the Maine coast, with 10- to 20-foot waves slashing the shoreline as 83 mph wind gusts were recorded in the far eastern town of Perry. Flash and coastal flooding alerts were also in place in the Pine Tree state. 

“That’s going to cause problems if waves that are hitting a seawall will be crashing over,” Braud said, noting that there was a possibility for the storm to make landfall in the state’s easternmost portion.

As of late Saturday morning, at least 71,000 homes and businesses in Maine were without electricity, according to Poweroutage.us, with additional reports of downed trees. 

“I would imagine as we go throughout the day, it’s gonna be considered widespread,” Braud said.   

Off the coast of Massachusetts, tropical-force-storm winds continued to whip through Nantucket and Boston, Braud said, with reports of a fallen tree crushing a couple of cars in the state but, so far, no more significant damage. 

“In terms of major coastal impacts, they’re gonna go ahead and avoid the majority of really anything major,” Braud said, noting continuous light to moderate rain was expected throughout Saturday. 

“In the grand scheme, not much is going on down there, besides just a really crummy day.”

Ahead of Lee, the governors of Maine and Massachusetts had declared states of emergency. 

Braud said that Lee could make landfall several times in Canada on Saturday, possibly touching down in Nova Scotia before hitting New Brunswick. Sustained winds of over 40 miles per hour were predicted throughout the day, with the occasional more powerful gusts. 

“It’s moving so quickly that it shouldn’t be too bad,” Braud said. “The worst thing is going to be sporadic outages.”

As of Saturday morning, over 128,000 households lacked electricity in Nova Scotia and more than 38,000 in New Brunswick, according to Poweroutage.us. 

Following the harrowing predictions of a destructive hurricane earlier in the week, New Englanders cheekily flaunted the minimal damage sustained.  

“We will rebuild,” online news outlet Nantucket Current captioned a 6-second clip, posted on X, which featured a toppled porta potty in a small pool of water in a parking lot amid ripping winds.