Environment Canada issues warning about Hurricane

HALIFAX — Batten down, Nova Scotia – Hurricane Bill is headed your way.

The Canadian Hurricane Centre in Dartmouth, N.S., issued its first tropical storm warning about Bill Saturday for areas across Nova Scotia including Halifax and Shelburne, Queens and Lunenburg counties.

The warning says that residents should expect "sustained gales" of 100 kilometres an hour to blow through these areas within 24 hours. With the strong winds will also come heavy rainfall which may lead to local flooding, the centre said.

Hurricane Bill, the first of the season, was downgraded to a Category 2 storm as it lingered southeast of the United States in the Atlantic Ocean Saturday, when its winds reached a maximum velocity of 160 kilometres an hour.

Bill was expected to carve a path to Atlantic Canada by Sunday, with officials issuing stern warnings to residents to get ready for fallen trees, broken power lines, torrential rain and ocean storms.

The hurricane was expected to sweep past Nova Scotia Sunday and make its first Canadian landfall in southeast Newfoundland on Monday.

Southern New Brunswick and eastern P.E.I. could also be affected by the storm, with high winds and rain.

Air Canada and other airlines ordered aircraft to stay off the runways at Halifax International Airport on Sunday, and some workers on offshore oil and gas platforms were being evacuated for the weekend.

All provincial beaches and parks have been closed to the public in anticipation of Hurricane Bill. Crews will re-evaluate the safety risks and damage cause by the storm Monday and announce when the areas will be reopened.

Marine Atlantic, the company that runs ferries between Port aux Basques, N.L, and Argentia, N.L., to North Sydney, N.S., have cancelled all routes this weekend.

Bill is the first major hurricane forecast to strike the East Coast since Hurricane Juan wreaked havoc across Nova Scotia and P.E.I. in 2003.

Juan caught residents here largely unawares, despite the government’s warnings, because residents were accustomed to hurricanes veering away or petering out before making landfall.

After Juan, the power was out for two weeks in some areas of the Maritimes – despite help from out-of-province power crews. If the rest of Atlantic Canada is hit this time, that help may not be coming.