(CNN) — The hurricane fionanow known as a post-tropical cyclone, made landfall in Nova Scotia and crossed Canada’s Atlantic coast early Saturday in what could be a “historic” weather event for the country.

An unofficial barometric pressure of 931.6 mb was recorded at Hart Island, which would make Fiona the lowest pressure storm on record in Canada, according to the Canadian Hurricane Center. Wind sightings on Beaver Island in eastern Nova Scotia were recorded at 152 km/h (94 mph).

Parts of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island began to feel the storm’s approach Saturday morning as winds and rain spreading away from the storm’s center disrupted utility services . More than 376,000 customers across Nova Scotia are so far without power, according to the region’s power outage center.

Residents of New Brunswick, southern Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador are also facing severe weather as Fiona heads north at more than 40 mph (65 km/h) after make landfall between Canso and Guysborough in eastern Nova Scotia. Fiona is expected to pass Cape Breton Island on Saturday morning and reach the southeast Labrador Sea by evening.

“The storm is producing high winds and very heavy rain,” said the Canadian Hurricane Center before hitting the ground. “Wide gusts of 80 to 110 km/h (50 to 68 mph) have been reported so far over Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and the Magdalen Islands, with a maximum gust of 144 km/h (90 mph) over Beaver Island, Nova Scotia. »

Fiona weakened slightly to a Category 2 storm on Friday, but is still expected to bring destructive storm surge, heavy rain and high winds. Fiona was a Category 4 storm early Wednesday over the Atlantic after crossing the Turks and Caicos Islands and remained that way until Friday afternoon.

Atlantic coast officials have urged those in Fiona’s path to be on high alert and prepare for the impact of the storm, which has already killed at least five people and knocked out power to millions of people whilehit several Caribbean islands this week. Homes and water infrastructure in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the Turks and Caicos Islands have been badly damaged, and many residents are still trying to recover.

Fiona is set to become an “extreme weather event” in eastern Canada, threatening about two months of rain, forecasters in Canada said Friday.

“This could be a historic event for Canada in terms of tropical cyclone intensity,” and could even become Canada’s version of Super Hurricane Sandy, said Chris Fogarty, director of the Canadian Hurricane Center. Sandy affected 24 states and the entire East Coast in 2012, causing damage estimated at $78.7 billion.

Fiona turned posttropical before landfall, arriving along with a low-pressure low and cold air to the north, as did Sandy, according to Bob Robichaud of the Canadian Hurricane Center.

Sandbags were placed around the doors of the Nova Scotia Power building in Halifax before Fiona arrived.

“What these things tend to do is they tend to get huge, which Fiona does as well,” he explained on Friday. “Sandy was bigger than Fiona expected. But the process is essentially the same: two features feed off each other to create a strong storm like the one we’ll see overnight.”

Georgina Scott surveys the damage to her street in Halifax on Saturday September 24, 2022.

Hurricane-force winds can extend up to nearly 300km from the center of Fiona and tropical-storm-force winds up to 555km, according to CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam.

CNN’s Derek Van Dam, Haley Brink, Aya Elamroussi, Theresa Waldrop and Christina Maxouris contributed to this report.