Dorian is no longer a hurricane but it's still causing power outages in Canada

Posted: 7:23 AM, Sep 09, 2019
Updated: 2019-09-09 07:23:56-04

Dorian has moved out to sea after wreaking havoc from the Bahamas to Canada, but its high winds were still hitting Nova Scotia Monday morning.

All schools in Nova Scotia were closed Monday after Dorian tore across Canada's Atlantic coast early Sunday, knocking out power despite losing some strength after leaving the United States.

Transit operations in Halifax will resume as normal Monday morning and officials are asking residents to consider taking public transport to reduce the number of vehicles on the road as cleanup efforts continue, a tweet from Halifax Government said.

The storm was a Category 1 hurricane when it passed east of Massachusetts Saturday. It then transitioned to a post-tropical cyclone as it moved over cooler water and made landfall near Sambro Creek in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Its heavy rains and powerful winds downed trees and power lines in Nova Scotia and surrounding areas, with threatening surf expected to continue to affect the coast of Canada over the next few days.

As of Monday morning, 215,968 customers are without electricity, Nova Scotia Power said.

At the peak of the storm, Nova Scotia Power said more than 400,000 of its customers were without power.

The utility company had more than 1,000 personnel working on outages and used four helicopters to survey damage Sunday, according to a news release.

Before its landfall in Canada, Dorian's nearly two-week path unleashed devastation in the Bahamas, where it flattened homes and swept away neighborhoods, leaving at least 43 people dead. It's left as many as 70,000 people homeless in the islands.

In the United States, several cities were cleaning up after it made landfall in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and brushed other East Coast states. Five deaths have been blamed on the storm so far.

Hurricane warnings still in effect

The storm is still dangerous with maximum sustained winds equivalent to a hurricane.

Hurricane warnings remain in effect for parts of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, the National Hurricane Center said.

It's packing maximum winds near 90 mph, which are occurring mainly over water, the National Hurricane Center said. The post-tropical cyclone is forecast to drop below hurricane strength Sunday.

The hurricane center downgraded it from a hurricane to a post-tropical cyclone Saturday. The loss of its hurricane status means it no longer has a warm core, CNN meteorologist Gene Norman said.

"While the change in classification is technical, the fact of the matter is it's still a dangerous situation and people in the area should not let their guard down," Norman said.