Hurricane 'Earl' hammers Nova Scotia while 'Gaston' gains power

After bringing down trees, branches and power lines in the Maritimes, a storm warning remains in effect for western Newfoundland.

The tail-end of Hurricane Earl, now being referred to as a "post tropical storm" packing winds of about 90 kilometres an hour, is reported to have downed power lines and trees in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Meantime, crews are working to restore power to tens of thousands of customers, mainly in Nova Scotia and PEI, and some may be left in the dark for a couple of days.

Darren Borgel, with the Canadian Hurricane Centre in Nova Scotia, says Earl did pretty much what forecasters expected.   He says the storm followed a fairly predictable path of the watches and warnings that were put up.

So far, Earl is being blamed for one death.

A 54-year-old Bayside, Nova Scotia man drowned while trying to swim to shore after his boat came loose from its mooring in a bay near Halifax.

Meantime, forecasters say there's a good chance another storm, called 'Gaston,' will re-form into a tropical storm by Monday.

The system is centered over the mid-Atlantic and is headed west toward the Caribbean.

Gaston was a tropical storm for a while last week, but was downgraded when its winds diminished to 65-kilometres per hour.

(further coverage of the local effects of the hurricane in our National news section)