Bob Robichaud

Nova Scotians already buried under as much as 80 centimetres of snow hunkered down and braced for even more on Sunday as a powerful storm hovering over the province was poised to linger well into a third day.

A flooded Nova Scotia field was the focus of an intense weekend search for four people, including two children, lost after rushing waters caused by torrential rains swamped the vehicles they were travelling in.

People across Atlantic Canada were stocking up on last-minute essentials and storm-proofing their properties Friday ahead of the arrival of Fiona, which forecasters say will hit the region as a “very powerful” post-tropical storm.

Dorian slammed into the Maritimes on Saturday, September 7, 2019, its powerful gusts uprooting trees, tearing off roofs and yanking down power lines — leaving more than 450,000 people in the dark as the post-tropical storm made landfall near Halifax.

Localized flooding was reported overnight in the western Maritimes as the remnants of post-tropical storm Erin dumped more than 160 millimetres of rain in some areas.

The remnants of post-tropical storm Erin were expected to bring heavy rain overnight to a fairly narrow band of the western Maritimes.

It has been years since a major tropical storm wreaked havoc in Canada, but the Canadian Hurricane Centre is warning against complacency.