Kyle blows across eastern Canada without serious damage

Hurricane Kyle knocked down power lines and trees in eastern Canada but....

Hurricane Kyle knocked down power lines and trees in eastern Canada but authorities said Monday the weakened storm caused no injuries or major property damage as initially feared."We’ve had no damage reported from the storm," said police in Yarmouth, at the southern tip of Nova Scotia where the category one storm on the five level Saffir-Simpson scale made landfall at about 9:00 pm local time Sunday (0000 GMT).Kyle was then downgraded to a post-tropical low as it headed inland, losing strength overnight as it passed over the cooler waters of the Bay of Fundy, and southeastern New Brunswick, said Bob Robichaud of the Canadian Hurricane Service.By midmorning, it was crossing the northeast tip of Prince Edward Island and headed across the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to Quebec, where it was expected to peter out, he told AFP.Authorities had warned of coastal flooding, downed power lines, and tree damage, as well as damage to structures from fallen trees. Robichaud said it turned out to be minimal.With gusts of 120 kilometer (75 mile) per hour winds and heavy rains, most flights in and out of the provincial capital of Halifax had been canceled or delayed Sunday, and electricity was out for some 10,000 in parts of southern Nova Scotia.In Yarmouth, the McClelland family told AFP by telephone rain was blowing sideways, but the storm seemed tame compared to the last hurricane that struck exactly five years ago.Their son Pat, who works at the Halifax Airport, said late Sunday he would "just throw some sandbags in the old Honda to make sure it doesn’t blow away" on his ride home, with visibility low.The military was called in to clean up the carnage left by category two Hurricane Juan in 2003, including the devastation of Point Pleasant Park.Earlier, Kyle veered away from New England and carried its ripping winds and pounding rains straight toward southeastern Canada, according to the US National Hurricane Center.The Maine Yacht Center in Portland, Maine, which had expected to take a beating from the storm if not a direct hit, said it had turned off the electricity and fuel lines at the marina, just in case."We’ve turned all the vessels toward the wind and right now there’s no panic," dock master Alexandre Hofmann told AFP. "Boat owners keep calling to check on the marine forecaster reports," he said.Kyle is the 11th named storm of the June-to-November Atlantic hurricane season this year, some of which have been deadly.Although expected to drop 50-100 millimeters (two-four inches) of rain on the region, all major storm warnings were lifted Monday, authorities said.