Maritimes storm causes flooding, outages

A wind and rainstorm expected to continue into Tuesday has caused flooding and power outages in the Maritimes and prompted one New Brunswick town to plan for a state of local emergency.

Most of New Brunswick was under a heavy rainfall warning and winds were expected to reach 90 kilometres an hour.

The Charlotte County area of southwestern New Brunswick was expected to receive 80 to 130 millimetres of rain by Tuesday.

The Town of St. Stephen planned to declare a state of local emergency after 100 mm of rain fell in 18 hours. There was major flooding on two main arteries through the town.

"Everybody was a bit shocked by how high the water was," town manager John Ferguson told CBC News on Monday.

He described the water level as waist deep or higher in the King Street area of town, saying a lot of residents have said they have never seen the water so high.

Town officials say they want to be ready to issue emergency orders if flooding should cut off access to roads in and out of the town.

There was also flooding on Highway 1 along the Bay of Fundy in Charlotte County, on many rural roads and on some streets in Fredericton.

Emergency measures officials in New Brunswick warned of the potential for more flash flooding.

High winds Monday night had also knocked out power to 7,000 customers in the province.

Power outages reported in N.S.

In Nova Scotia, rolling power outages were reported throughout Monday. By late Monday night, more than 46,000 customers were without power.

Nova Scotia Power said about 100 crews would be on standby, ready to tackle such outages throughout the province Monday night and into Tuesday.

In some areas of Nova Scotia, lakes and rivers were already at higher than normal levels because of heavy rain last month. Officials with the Emergency Management Office said they're concerned about high water levels but hoped most of the rain would be absorbed without widespread flooding.

With high winds expected to continue, officials were asking people to stay away from coastal areas such as Peggys Cove.

The heavy rain was expected to hit Nova Scotia overnight, with wind gusts expected at 100 km/h or higher.

Travel disrupted

Marine Atlantic, which sails between Port aux Basques, N.L., and North Sydney, N.S., held its ferries in port Monday because of the weather. It said its sailing schedule would be affected for the next 72 hours.

The Confederation Bridge between P.E.I. and New Brunswick was closed to high-sided vehicles, such as transport trucks, at 9:25 a.m. It was also closed earlier in the morning, opening for only a couple of hours.

P.E.I. was expected to have wind gusts of up to 100 km/h overnight and about 20 to 30 mm of rain Tuesday.

The storm has already caused cancellations of dozens of flights.  Morning travellers were urged to call ahead to check their flights before they leave for the airport.

People were also urged to have emergency supplies on hand as a precaution.