HALIFAX—As Hurricane Dorian closes in on Nova Scotia, forecasters say it holds significant destructive potential and government officials are urging coastal residents to pack up and leave their homes.Dorian was about 500 km southwest of Halifax on Saturday morning when the Canadian Hurricane Centre provided its latest update to media.Warning preparedness meteorologist Bob Robichaud said that despite some predictions late Friday about Dorian intensifying into a Category 2, the CHC believed it would be a Category 1 storm for its arrival over Nova Scotia.If Dorian maintained its path, Robichaud said it would land directly over Halifax, or just east of it, late Saturday evening, continuing toward Newfoundland on Sunday.Robichaud told reporters on the teleconference that “things are on their way,” with heavy rain and winds already gusting at 90 km/h over southwestern Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.As the full brunt of the storm arrives later in the day, he said winds would pick up to more than 100 km/h, with gusts over 140 km/h. Rainfall was forecast to be heaviest over the western part of Nova Scotia, to the left of the storm’s path, with at least 50 mm and up to 150 mm in some areas.In his Friday update, Robichaud had told reporters that it’s “tricky” to compare storms, but some of Dorian’s conditions were similar to 2003’s hurricane Juan—a Category 2 storm that downed tens of thousands of trees, caused days-long power outages for some Haligonians and took eight lives.On Saturday, Robichaud again cautioned of Dorian’s potential threat, saying that other lesser storms had caused “significant impacts.”Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) took the rare step on Friday of issuing a voluntary evacuation notice to some residents. They urged people living on Atlantic shorelines, including the Sambro region, Peggy’s Cove and along the Eastern Shore to move inland.The Red Cross was planning to ...
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