Arthur strikes Maritimes, leaves thousands in the dark

Saturday, July 5, 2014, 7:42 PM - The first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season made landfall on Thursday as a category 2 hurricane. Arthur hit North Carolina with wind speeds of 160 km/h. While no injuries were reported it did leave nearly 120,000 customers in the dark.

Twenty five counties in North Carolina were placed under a state of emergency. Beaufort County forced residents of low-lying areas to evacuate. Assistance was also provided for residents in voluntary evacuation regions.

Arthur continued its trajectory northeast bringing heavy rain and strong winds to New York and the New England states just in time for the July 4th celebrations.

Arthur was weakened as it made its way toward Canada, reaching the Maritimes as a post-tropical storm. It made landfall in Nova Scotia at 7:30 ADT near Meteghan and Port Maitland. In Brier Island wind gusts hit speeds of 128 km/h. Yarmouth came in second with winds of 113 km/h.

"Although it's not uncommon to see tropical systems impact Atlantic Canada, it is definitely early in the year for such a storm," said Monica Vaswani, meteorologist at The Weather Network.

The storm was more of a rain story in New Brunswick. St. Stephen was hit with nearly 130 millimeters of rain by 3 p.m. ADT. Bathurst and Miramichi also hovered around the 100 millimeters of rain.

"The heaviest rain has occurred in NB mainly as a result of the track of the storm itself. What started off as a hurricane has since become extra tropical as a result of its merger with a cold front," Vaswani said.  "This hybrid storm allowed for changes in the structure which assisted the heaviest bands of precipitation occurring over New Brunswick. Meanwhile the main threat from this storm to Nova Scotia has been the winds."

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Arthur uprooted trees and downed power lines causing massive damage all across the Maritimes. At the height of the storm more than 200,000 customers were left without power in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, while about 40 communities reported outages in Prince Edward Island. Officials in Nova Scotia said repairs could take up to 12 hours for some of the larger areas.

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"As was forecast, communities in New Brunswick have already seen rainfall amounts exceeding 120 millimeters which has caused flooding complications. Wind gusts exceeding 120 kilometer per hour in Nova Scotia have caused many power outages," Vaswani explained.

At least one person was reported injured, a man in his 50s or 60s who was hurt when a tree fell on him in Onslow, N.S. according to Chronicle Herald reproter Frances Willick

Arthur Quick Stats

• Formed July 1 off the east coast of Florida
• Attained category 1 hurricane-status near Cape Fear, Nroth Carolina on July 3
• Late-day July 3, Arthur became a category 2 hurricane
• Maximum sustained winds throughout its life cycle was 155 km/h
• Landfalls