MIAMI — A rare hurricane watch was posted for part of the Maine coast on Saturday as Tropical Storm Kyle roared north toward the region with a threat of conditions similar to one of New England's nor'easter storms.
"Hurricane season isn't over, " said Maine Emergency Management Agency director Rob McAleer. "It's been a very active season."
It was Maine's first hurricane watch in 17 years, the National Weather Service said. Elsewhere in the northeastern New England states, a hurricane warning was posted for Nantucket Island off the coast of Massachusetts in September 1996, according to the weather service office in Taunton, Massachusetts.
Two to 4 inches of rain had already fallen along some coastal areas by midday Saturday and the storm was expected to deliver an additional 2 to 4 inches, said Eric Schwibs of the weather service in Gray.
At 2 p.m. EDT Kyle was centered about 300 miles west-northwest of Bermuda and 550 miles south of Nantucket, the National Hurricane Center said in Miami.
The storm had top sustained wind near 70 mph and the potential to grow to hurricane strength. It was moving north over the open Atlantic at 20 mph, up from 15 mph during the morning.
Kyle's center was forecast to be near eastern New England or the Canadian Maritime provinces late Sunday, the hurricane center said.
The hurricane center posted a hurricane watch from Stonington, at roughly the center of the Maine coast, to Eastport, on the border with New Brunswick, Canada. A tropical storm watch extended south to Cape Elizabeth, near Portland.
Kyle could make landfall near Eastport, possibly late Sunday, the hurricane center said.
That would put the storm's strongest wind in New Brunswick, rather than in Maine, which would get conditions more akin to "a garden variety nor'easter," said Schwibs.
The government of Canada issued a tropical storm watch for southwestern New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, the hurricane center said.
The weather service also issued flood watches for the southern two-thirds of New Hampshire and southern Maine through Sunday evening.
McAleer said the storm's biggest threat in Maine would be the potential for high waves and small stream flooding.
The Coast Guard prepared crews and equipment for the storm and urged boat owners to secure their vessels in anticipation of high wind and seas that could run 10 to 20 feet high off shore.
Eastern Maine's power company, Bangor Hydro-Electric, said it prepared for potential outages and planned to have additional crews on duty.
Sept. 26: This NOAA satellite image taken at 1:15 AM EDT shows Tropical Storm Kyle located to the southwest of Bermuda.retrieved 9/27/08 from: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,428483,00.html
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