Wild fall storm forecasted to batter N.S. with heavy rain, strong winds
CBC
Buckle up, Nova Scotia. We're in for a wild weather ride.
An intense low pressure system began slowing moving across Nova Scotia Monday morning and is expected to stall over eastern parts of the province during the night.
All of Nova Scotia is under a rainfall warning, with Environment Canada calling for 60 to 90 millimetres of rain for much of the province, and 100 to 150 millimetres in eastern areas, as the storm continues through Wednesday morning.
Roy Hollett, deputy chief for Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency, warns people should stay home, if possible.
"Let the crews do what they need to do. What we don't want to see are storm chasers … people who want to watch and take pictures of it," he said.
"If it's coming in to what we're seeing, with the amount of rain and the wind, it's not going to be a good situation to be outside."
Halifax County east of Porters Lake, Guysborough County and all of Cape Breton are also under wind warnings, with maximum gusts of up to 100 km/h expected. The high winds are expected to last late into Tuesday.
"In the evening [Monday], that's when the winds are really going to start to intensify," said CBC meteorologist Tina Simpkin.
There's also a Les Suêtes wind warning for the area of Inverness County stretching north from Mabou.
Simpkin said the storm will "intensify and slowly move east and then be pulled back to the west before eventually kicking off into the North Atlantic. These are called retrograde systems as they move temporarily from east to west before moving off into the Atlantic."
Hollett said crews have been out trying to clear leaves from streets help with drainage, particularly in flood-prone areas of Halifax.
"If you notice you have a storm drain or a drain in front of your house, please go out. Take an extra couple of minutes, clean up the leaves. The problems will happen when the drains start to clog up and the water can't use it," said Hollett.
Hollett said households should have enough food, water and medication for 72 hours. Check out more on storm preparedness here.
St. Matthew's United Church on Barrington Street in Halifax is opening during the storm as a warming centre and extreme weather shelter from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. In a tweet Monday morning, the Halifax Warming Centre said it would also be opening the George Dixon Community Centre on Brunswick Street for those in need of a warm, dry place to sleep.
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