Hurricane Dorian pummels eastern Canada with 80mph winds and torrential rain

Third of Nova Scotia without power as crane toppled and trees uprooted across province

Storm Dorian has hit parts of Canada with hurricane-force winds, ripping roofs off buildings and leaving thousands of residents without power.

The post-tropical storm struck near the city of Halifax, in the far-eastern Canadian province of Nova Scotia, on Saturday.

Its winds uprooted trees and toppled a huge construction crane.

By Sunday morning the storm was travelling to the north-northwest, roughly up the St Lawrence River.

The US National Hurricane Center said the storm was travelling with sustained winds of 80mph on Sunday.

There have been no deaths reported in Canada but the cyclone has been blamed for at least 49 others elsewhere.

“The safety of Canadians is our number one priority and we’re ready to help Atlantic Canada through this storm,” Justin Trudeau, the Canadian premier, said on Saturday.

Up to 700 military personnel have been deployed to help restore electricity, clear roadways and evacuate residents in flooded areas, a government spokesperson said.

At least 380,000 Nova Scotia residents, a third of the province’s population, have been left without power, officials said.

“There is extensive damage,” said Karen Hutt, chief executive office of Nova Scotia Power.

“This storm was intense,” she said, adding that it would be ”days not hours” before power was fully restored.

Some 50,000 further buildings on Prince Edward Island and 74,000 in New Brunswick were also left without electricity.

Dorian’s greatest impact has been in the Bahamas, where it made landfall a week ago as a Category 5 hurricane before going on to destroy thousands of homes.

At least 43 people died on the islands due to the storm and rescue efforts to reach those stranded in isolated areas have been hampered by the devastation.

Thousands are thought to be missing and the death toll is expected to rise sharply.

The UN estimates some 76,000 people in the Bahamas are now in immediate danger of disease and starvation, while the Red Cross said 45 per cent of homes in some areas had been either severely damaged or destroyed.

Surveyors put the total cost of the catastrophe at $7bn (£5.6bn).

A further five people were killed in the US southeast and one in Puerto Rico.

“Dorian will slowly weaken as it moves northeastward across northern Newfoundland later today and east of Labrador tonight,” a spokesperson for the Canadian Hurricane Center said.

Additional reporting by agencies