Michael Tutton And Melanie Patten, THE CANADIAN PRESS

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Downpours from tropical storm Hanna soaked already water-logged East Coast communities on Sunday, filling basements with over a metre of water and creating waist-deep flooding in downtown streets.

New Brunswick bore the brunt of the weather as the storm rolled along the coasts of the Bay of Fundy, drenching southwestern areas of the province with more than 140 millimetres of rain.

Sgt. Robert Buck, a spokesman for the Saint John police, said city streets were barricaded in some areas where the water rose over the bumpers of cars.

"One guy was out there today and ... he was actually swimming in it," he said during an interview.

"It just poured, just came down in bucketfuls."

The Saint John fire department reported over 100 homes had asked for assistance as basements filled with muddy waters during the day.

"We're still at it trying to catch up with the backlog of calls," Peter Saab, a district fire chief in Saint John, said on Sunday afternoon.

"We're dealing with the situation as best we can. Our resources have been taxed to the maximum, but we're slowly gaining on the situation."

It was a similar situation in communities surrounding the harbour city.

Tim Porter, a spokesman for the Emergency Measures Organization in New Brunswick, said a rail line in Grand Bay was closed due to localized flooding.

He expected rivers and lakes to remain swollen with rain water for days to come.

"We're advising people living or working alongside water courses in southern and eastern New Brunswick, particularly along the coast line, to remain on alert until the water flow levels return to normal."

There was also some flooding in downtown Charlottetown, after the city received more than 50 millimetres of rain.

Some cars stranded on streets were towed and some residents had more than a foot of water in their basements.

While heavy rain fell on Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, forecasters with Environment Canada said southern New Brunswick was hit the hardest.

The most rain - 141 millimetres - fell in the Point Lepreau area.

"The story maker from this tropical system will be the rainfall amounts, especially over southern New Brunswick," meteorologist Mike Campbell said from Dartmouth, N.S.

"It's really going to be the notable feature out of this system."

About 50 millimetres were expected in most areas along mainland Nova Scotia, Cape Breton and P.E.I.

Strong winds were also noted in some areas.

There was also concern the storm could trigger localized flooding in Nova Scotia, where heavy rain over the past few weeks has left the ground close to saturation.

Electric utilities throughout the region had crews on standby to deal with outages as what was left of Hanna moved through.

A small number of NB Power customers lost electricity in the afternoon, but power was restored within an hour.

By early afternoon, rainfall warnings were called off in New Brunswick and western Nova Scotia as the fast-moving storm began tracking toward Cape Breton.

The eye of storm was expected to pass northeast over the Bay of Fundy before crossing central Newfoundland early Monday.

Hanna also soaked New York City on Sunday, dropping a month's worth of rain in just a few hours.

At least 75 millimetres of rain fell, flooding highways, delaying flights, halting the U.S. Open, and leaving thousands of customers without power.