Hurricane Lee was downgraded to a post-tropical storm as it made landfall close to 4 p.m. on Sunday, September 17, in western Nova Scotia. Winds from the storm remained around 70 mph and left one dead and thousands without electricity throughout Maine and coastal parts of Canada.

A 51-year-old man died in Searsport, Maine, after a tree limb fell on his vehicle. The limb brought down live power lines, and utility workers had to cut the power before the man could be removed from the scene, reported police chief Brian Lunt. 

On Saturday, 11 percent of electricity customers in Maine were without power, 27 percent in Nova Scotia, 8 percent in New Brunswick, and 3 percent in Prince Edward Island. Though Lee was downgraded to a tropical storm, the impacts were still significant enough to reach hundreds of miles from the storm's center. 

Maine and Massachusetts declared states of emergency to warn residents. However, Massachusetts lifted its emergency on Saturday. President Biden authorized the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to step in and coordinate disaster relief and assistance for required emergency measures, states CNN in an article from Monday.

Fishermen up and down the coast of Maine removed lobster traps, and boatyards hauled out hundreds of boats as time allowed before the storm. Marine towing and ocean service businesses such as Determination Marine, owned and operated by Parker Poole out of Portland, Maine, had a busy week leading up to the storm, prepping their gear and assisting other mariners to ensure their investments were safe.

Poole stated in a social media post this past Friday, “Although the storm is not a direct hit, we have all of our vessels fueled up, loaded with gear, and ready to respond both over the road or by sea after the storm for recoveries, or during the storm on a case-by-case basis as it is safe for our crews.”

Some fishermen in New England were able to move some gear before the winds of the storm would directly affect the traps in the water. 

That Salty Blonde heads in after spending a couple of days taking gear out of the water before Hurricane Lee makes its way up to the North Atlantic. Courtesy of @thatsaltyblonde_ Instagram page.

Other fishermen weren't so lucky in the case of taking gear out of the water before Lee due to the amount of equipment they had out to sea. They headed out to fish earlier than usual on Monday morning to check things out. 

Within the demise of Hurricane Lee, Hurricane Nigel formed in the Atlantic late Saturday and is likely to become a major hurricane on Tuesday. The National Hurricane Center estimates that the storm has winds of 80 miles per hour early Monday morning but expects to reach a Category 3 storm tomorrow. Though Nigel is trailing closely behind Lee, there are no current warnings or watches for prospected landfall. By the middle of the week, it’s expected to turn into the open Atlantic.

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