Storm seemed to abate mid afternoon but at 4:30 the winds changed direction and came on strong again as Earl pounds PEI

Update – Nova Scotians felt the worst of Tropical Storm Earl. More than 200,000 homes were without power from fallen trees and branches on power lines. Halifax lost power and was littered with trees and debris.

At 6 PM Tropical Storm Earl was 20 miles west of the Magdalen Islands still packing 110 km/h winds. The track after the Magdalen Islands is Western Newfoundland.

Earl cut a swath through central Nova Scotia with power outages all along it’s path. No deaths were reported except a swimmer in Chocolate Lake in Halifax and its not clear if it was during the storm or not.

Powered by storm-tracking software from Stormpulse.com

StormPulse puts the eye of the storm in the Gulf of St. Lawrence 135 miles from Sydney. Winds at the center of the storm are still 112 km/h but outside that they range from 62 to 91 km/h.  

2,000 Island homes lost their power.

Cape Breton is getting a pounding. We hear but can’t confirm that East Point in PEI will get hit. Montague, PEI was windy but appeared calm 30 minutes ago.

When we left the house at 3:30 it was cool and calm in Charlottetown. The streets were littered with debris and a few branches. Maritime Electric and Charlottetown Works crews were just clearing the tree that fell in Grafton and Prince several hours before. Within an hour, the wind turned around and came on with a vengeance. The sun came out for fifteen minutes and the temperature 23 degrees C and humid.

Environment Canada is reporting winds in Charlottetown of  WSW 42 gust 58 km/h which the backside of the storm.

Media Coverage

CBC Radio (it appeared to be from New Brunswick) showed some old strength in the medium by running an all afternoon call-in program. They had some reporters on the road chasing the storm. The best stories were calls from people throughout the Maritimes reporting the impact of Earl in their area.

Twitter traffic has been light. A few posts, the odd picture. April Ennis lost and apple tree outside Montague. “AprilEnnis #Earl has already killed one of the apple trees in our backyard. Not cool #Earl. Not cool at all. http://campl.us/iPk”

The Langille Show went on the road with some “I’m driving my car in the rain” clips with annoying ads. A report from Joel Ives about golfing up to the last minute.

I’ll put up a video later but now it’s supper time!