The storm that already walloped the Virgin Islands, Bahamas and North Carolina lashed at far eastern Canada with hurricane-force winds for much of on Sunday, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of people before weakening and heading into the North Atlantic Ocean.

(Photo: AP)

Dorian hit near the city of Halifax on Saturday afternoon, ripping roofs off apartment buildings, toppling a huge construction crane and uprooting trees. There were no reported deaths in Canada, though the storm was blamed for at least 50 elsewhere along its path.

The US National Hurricane Center said the post-tropical cyclone was centered about 600 kilometers north of Cape Race, Newfoundland, late on Sunday. Its top sustained winds continued at 95 kilometers per hour, after being above the 120 km/h threshold of hurricane force earlier in the day. The storm was heading to the east-northeast, roughly up the St. Lawrence River, at 39 km/h.

The storm swept over northwestern Newfoundland and southeastern Labrador during the afternoon and moved out over the cold waters of the Labrador Sea during the night.

Nova Scotia officials asked people in the province to stay off the roads so crews could safety remove trees and debris and restore power.

The government said 700 Canadian troops would be fanning out across the Maritimes to help restore electricity, clear roadways and evacuate residents in flooded areas.

Nova Scotia Power Inc chief executive Karen Hutt said more than 400,000 customers lost power at the peak of the storm but it had since been restored to 50,000 of them. About 80 percent of Nova Scotia's homes and businesses were blacked out - the highest in the company's history. Hutt said some customers could remain without service for days.

On Prince Edward Island, about 75 percent of homes and businesses had no electricity by Sunday afternoon, according to the province's Public Safety Department.

Widespread blackouts, affecting up to 80,000 NB Power customers, were reported in southern New Brunswick.

By far, the greatest devastation caused by the storm was in the Bahamas, where Dorian struck a week ago as a Category 5 hurricane with 295 km/h winds, and then hovered just offshore for more than a day and a half, obliterating thousands of homes.

Planes, cruise ships and yachts were evacuating people from the Abaco Islands and officials were trying to reach areas still isolated by flooding and debris.

The country's National Emergency Management Agency said it was sending in extra staff because operations had been hampered by the storm's impact on local workers.

The agency said it was setting up shelters or temporary housing for the newly homeless across the islands and appealed for Bahamians to take in storm victims.

Bahamian Health Minister Duane Sands said on Sunday the death toll had risen by one to 44. Dorian was blamed for five deaths in the US Southeast and one in Puerto Rico.