Most of New Brunswick escaped the brunt of post-tropical storm Sandy on Tuesday, but Environment Canada is warning there could still be some flooding in the southwestern part of the province.

The massive storm system churned northward, away from the province, after barrelling through the northeastern U.S. — where it has caused flooding, widespread power outages and 39 deaths — and brought strong winds and heavy rain to southern Ontario, Quebec and parts of the Maritimes.

Northern New Brunswick is expected to see about 10 millimetres of rain and winds of 50 kilometres per hour into the evening, while the Fredericton area could see 25 mm of rain and winds gusting at 50 km/h.

In the southwest, forecasts were calling for 40 mm of rain and winds gusting up to 60 km/h.

Rainfall warnings in the area continue, said meteorologist Claude Coté.

"At this point for the month of October we already have about 30 to 40 per cent above normal precipitation amounts," he said.

"So the ground is saturated, and we're going to receive an additional 50 to 80 millimetres of rain in St. George, Charlotte County. And locally, because of the thunderstorm activity, some local areas could even get rainfall amounts of 100 millimetres."

'It's kind of scary, actually.'—Roberta Cosgrove, storm watcher

River Watch is monitoring the Magaguadavic River in St, George, as well as other Charlotte County communities, where the memory of devastating floods two years ago is still fresh.

In Saint John, some people took advantage of the storm's high winds and went wind surfing in the Bay of Fundy, while others watched.

"It's kind of scary actually," said area resident Roberta Cosgrove.

"We just came from the Irving Nature Park and I was taking a picture of these two, and the wave came up, and the white stuff took their feet, and I'm like 'Run!', and they took off running, so it's pretty big. It's almost up to the cars."

Meanwhile, with more stormy weather in the forecast, Saint John Energy and NB Power are holding off on sending crews to the U.S. to help restore power there until they see how the local situation unfolds.

The gates of the old St. George dam were opened early in preparation for a looming rain storm. (CBC)

In Bonny River, residents were doing whatever they could to avoid flooding like they experienced in 2010.

Gates on the old St. George Dam have been wide open for days, draining thousands of litres of water every second from the Magaguadavic and Bonny rivers.

The head pond at the new dam was virtually empty on Monday with floats suspended in the air where the river normally runs. It is a sign of how seriously the threat of flooding is being taken in Charlotte County.

Tim Martin said water levels in Bonny River have been lowered 2.5 metres over where they were last week to make room for the pending rain.

Even though forecasters were not calling for rain levels nearly as high as they were two years ago, Martin said he was not taking the chance.

He moved his camper as high as he could on his property.

"The one in 2010, we didn't have much warning on that,” Martin said.

“That was a real surprise. I don't trust the weather at all."

Harvey Dougherty also lives on the banks of Bonny River and said he watched waters rise more than two metres in an hour during the last flood.

He said it’s impossible to know if there's anything to worry about this time.

"We've taken everything off the deck and put it in the shed … it's all you can do,” he said.