New England prepares for Hurricane Lee

After a week of extreme weather, New England braces for Hurricane Lee’s storm effects. 

President Biden granted a disaster declaration Friday following a request from Maine Gov. Janet Mills. Mills had previously declared a state of emergency for Maine, but Biden’s declaration will ensure federal resources and personnel are available to the area ahead of Lee’s landfall. 

A tropical storm warning was in place from Maine to Massachusetts, and Maine was placed under its first hurricane watch in 15 years, The Associated Press reported. 

Forecasters predicted tropical storm-force winds, 40 mph or greater, and 20-foot ocean swells ahead of the expected landfall Saturday. The storm was big enough to cause concerns over a wide area, AP reported. 

In an advisory Friday morning, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said hurricane conditions are possible across portions of “Down East Maine, southern New Brunswick, and western Nova Scotia.” 

Tropical storm conditions and coastal flooding are expected in southern New England. The hurricane is expected to “spread along the coast of New England and over portions of Atlantic Canada through Saturday.” 

Canada residents were warned of power outages and flooding nearly a year after Hurricane Fiona hit the area. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with an incident response group to prepare. 

The Coast Guard warned New England residents to be prepared. A Maine resident, Kim Gillies, who helped remove boats from the water, said “it’s a batten-down-the-hatches kind of day.”

Over the past week, the area saw 10 inches of rain in more than six hours as well as tornado warnings. The heavy rain created sinkholes and brought flooding to many areas. 

As of Friday morning, the NHC said Lee was 490 miles southeast of Nantucket, Mass., and had wind gusts up to 85 mph.