The remnants of tropical storm Hanna drenched parts of the Maritimes on Sunday, flooding roads and basements in areas already soaked by summer rains.

"I've seen it pretty bad, but not really this bad," said Bruce Zwicker, trying to get his rental van through a watery Charlottetown street. "It's a lot of rain very quickly."

Hanna dumped nearly 140 mm of rain on Saint John by noon Sunday. (Submitted by Christine Rowe)Hanna raced through the region Sunday afternoon, bringing sustained winds of 74 km/h and dumping more than 100 millimetres of rain in southern New Brunswick, which took the brunt of the storm.

Saint John was hit with 142 millimetres of rain, while Point Lepreau got 141 millimetres, according to Environment Canada.

Parrsboro, in northern Nova Scotia, received 104 millimetres, while in Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown got 87 millimetres.

Hanna was heading out to Newfoundland late Sunday afternoon.

But as it swept through the Maritimes, it turned many ditches and intersections into wading pools.

The sudden downpour made driving treacherous, forcing emergency officials to urge motorists to stay off the road or pull over.

A washout closed part of the New Brunswick Southern Railway. (Gary Mittelholtz/CBC)In Saint John, crews erected traffic barricades on main stretches of city roads early Sunday, affecting drivers planning to use Rothesay Avenue, McAllister Drive, Westmorland Road, Fairville Boulevard and Kennebecasis Drive.

Sgt. Robert Buck with the Saint John police said the road closures were made in the best interests of drivers and people living in the area.

He said as many as six cars became stuck in the water as drivers tried to get around the barricades.

"You go around the barricades, you're on your own," Buck said. "You take your chances going through the puddles. The police department will not be helping you."

More than 100 homes with waterlogged basements called for help, the Saint John fire department said.

A moat forms close to a house near Pugwash, in Nova Scotia's Gulf Shore. (Submitted by Lisa Betts)In Grand Bay-Westfield, west of Saint John, about 60 metres of road on River Valley Drive was under water. The heavy rain also washed out about 45 metres of the New Brunswick Southern Railway.

"There's potential undermining, so we closed the road completely until an engineering study can be done to make sure everything is safe," said local fire Chief Dan McCoy.

Crews were on site, but they were waiting for the water to subside before repairing the tracks, said a representative of the railway owner, JD Irving.

There were also some road closures in Moncton because of the rain.

Road crashes in Nova Scotia

In Nova Scotia, RCMP reported several incidents after cars hydroplaned on wet roads in the heavy downpour.

"The shoulders of the roads are getting extremely soft," said Alex Benoit, spokesman for the RCMP in Truro.

There were also reports of flooded roads, ditches and basements in several communities in northern Nova Scotia.

In P.E.I., a few streets in Charlottetown had to be closed because of flooding. The city had five crews out trying to keep the storm drains clear and moving.

Some power outages

Winds of between 60 and 70 km/h were reported in many areas of Nova Scotia on Sunday morning.

About 600 customers in Yarmouth and 200 in the Sackville area lost power, but it was restored by noon. Crews were working on another outage in the Tantallon area, near Halifax.

Late in the afternoon, NB Power was reporting outages in New Brunswick affecting about 270 customers in Sussex and a handful in St. Stephen and Fredericton.

In P.E.I., Maritime Electric said there was one small outage in an industrial park.

Emergency measures officials had urged people to keep a basic emergency kit at home, including a supply of water, food and a battery-powered flashlight.

Summer of rain

Meteorologists had warned the storm could trigger localized flooding in some areas already reeling from a summer of rain.

In northern and eastern Nova Scotia, previous heavy rains had washed out several roads and bridges.

With files from the Canadian Press