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Earl heads toward Canada

04 September 2010 21:22 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Eastern Canada braced for the worst of Tropical Storm Earl as New Englanders said goodbye to a heavy dose of wind and rain, APA reports quoting cnn.com website.
As of 8 a.m. the National Hurricane Center said the storm is "very near" Nova Scotia, about 40 miles south of Cape Sable.
A hurricane watch has been issued for a stretch of that province from Port Maitland to Point Tupper, and a tropical storm warning is in effect for the entire coast of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, the Magdalen Islands and portions of New Brunswick.
The storm -- which is packing maximum winds of 70 mph and moving at 30 mph -- is forcing the shutdown of campgrounds and and the cancellations of resort bookings in Nova Scotia.
One major event, the Wharf Rat Rally -- a Canadian motorcycle rally in Digby, Nova Scotia -- won’t be canceled, and organizers plan to wait out the storm, said Glenn Dunn, a spokesman for the rally.
"We’re expecting a few hours of rain and wind," he said, and he expects people to flock to the rally, which lasts through Monday, after the weather gets better. Some out-of-towners aren’t used to such elements.
"We are used to weather here, and people who are not are terrified," Dunn said.
In Massachusetts, authorities are "fairly confident we’ll be getting things back to normal soon" after the storm drenched New England.
"We had a very quiet night," said Scott MacLeod, spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.
"We had a few road closures and minor power outages. Earlier, we had 1,800 customers statewide who lost power. Now it’s down to 700. We fully expect everyone’s power to be restored soon."
Parts of Nantucket, Massachusetts, have already received 3 to 6 inches of rain.
"We had some local road closures, very similar to when we get a good rain storm," MacLeod said. "We had a lot of time to prepare for this one, and everyone did."
Large swells from Earl will continue to affect the East Coast from New Jersey northward on Saturday, the weather agency said.
"These swells will likely cause dangerous surf conditions and rip currents," the hurricane center said.
"We’re going to have good weather today, and we expect a lot of people going back to the beaches," MacLeod said. "But there’s going to be heavy surf and dangerous rip currents," he said. "Residents and visitors need to remember that."