A sailor from Connecticut was rescued Tuesday night by a Canadian helicopter when his vessel capsized about 250 kilometres southeast of Halifax in turbulent waters churned up by tropical storm Cristobal.

The 66-year-old man was airlifted to safety by the crew of the Cormorant chopper, and suffered only cuts and a mild case of hypothermia.

'Everything is floating down there [the basement].'— Nancy Fahie, Sambro resident

His sailing vessel was on its way to the Azores islands in Portugal when it overturned while being buffeted by winds and heavy waves from the storm.

Cmdr. Mike Considine, a spokesman for the Canadian Forces, said the man activated his emergency locator beacon and the Cormorant helicopter, a Hercules airplane, two coast guard vessels and a frigate were sent to his aid.

A search-and-rescue technician was lowered into the water and brought the seafarer aboard the Cormorant at about 10:30 p.m. AT on Tuesday.

"He got caught up in the tropical storm Cristobal," Considine said Tuesday night in an interview. "When the Cormorant got to the scene, his vessel was capsized and his mast was broken."

Considine said he could not provide the man's identity, but said the vessel is named Seanine.

The sailor was expected to be treated at the hospital in Middleton, N.S., after being flown back to the helicopter base.

Southern regions drenched

Meanwhile, Cristobal was drenching Nova Scotia with up to a month's worth of rain in parts.

The southern regions of the province saw the worst torrents: Baccaro Point received 224 millimetres on Monday and Tuesday, while Western Head got 127 mm. Halifax received 42 mm over that span.

The heavy precipitation flooded basements in the Cape Sable region at the southern tip of Nova Scotia, and at least one road was washed out in Sambro, about 20 kilometres southwest of Halifax.

Paul and Nancy Fahie's house flooded with more than a metre of water when a torrent of water gushed underneath the road on Atlantic View Drive, a small subdivision in Sambro Head.

Nancy Fahie said the backyard "was nothing but water. The front lawn was nothing but water. There was no driveway. There was no road."

The flood inside the couple's finished basement has forced them to stay with neighbours the next couple of days.

"Everything is floating down there [the basement]," she said. "I have a deep freeze. I have two TVs. I have a bedroom set. I have a living-room set and everything is floating. It's just all going by."

The downpours prompted the cancellation of boat tours departing from Halifax, closed beaches and forced tourists to rework their vacation plans.

The Canadian Hurricane Centre downgraded Cristobal to a post-tropical storm Wednesday morning, as the eye of the storm passed within 200 kilometres of souteast Newfoundland.

With maximum sustained winds of 75 kilometres an hour, Cristobal was forecast to pass over the southern Grand Banks later Wednesday. The hurricane centre warned that the Grand Banks would experience gale-force winds, but said the storm shouldn't cause any major problems in Newfoundland.

With files from the Canadian Press