Lee moves across southeastern New Brunswick overnight

While the effects of post-tropical storm Lee were felt in New Brunswick in the early hours of Saturday, the eye of the storm didn't reach the province until later Saturday night

Lee then began moving across southeastern New Brunswick, and heavy rain was continuing in places, according to the Canadian Hurricane Centre.

Lee made landfall in Nova Scotia around 4 p.m. at Long Island, and the eye was just south-southwest of Saint John at 9 p.m.

CBC meteorologist Ryan Snoddon said the storm would keep moving northward, but winds would begin to ease in New Brunswick overnight.

Wind warnings were still in effect during the evening, with gusts of 90 to 100 kilometres possible.

In New Brunswick, rain warnings were also still in effect.

During the day, bands of heavy rain and winds hit parts of New Brunswick, including the west up to Edmundston and across the north to Bathurst.

Environment Canada said southern New Brunswick could expect between 50 and 120 millimetres of rain from Lee, which transitioned from a hurricane to a post-tropical storm early Saturday morning.

"It's really been chaotic," Kyle Leavitt of the New Brunswick Emergency Measures Organization said in late afternoon.

The storm covers a vast area, but the effects have differed among the small pockets within the system. Even in the same pocket, the rain has regularly run the gamut from somewhat heavy to torrential and back again. 

About 67,000 N.B. Power customers lost power at times, 38,000 at the peak, as trees fell on lines.

The number of customers without power continued to fall through the afternoon, reaching about 23,000 by 7 p.m. as crews work to repair some of the damaged lines.

N.B. Power spokesperson Dominique Couture said restoration can be hampered by road traffic and urged people not to travel unless necessary. She also said more outages were likely during the night.

Although Lee's predicted path has shifted a number of times, the eye of the storm was expected to reach New Brunswick to the east of Saint John in the St. Martins-Fundy Trail area. It was then expected to track overland toward the western tip of Prince Edward Island.