Montreal, (AFP) - Hurricane Fiona Saturday made landfall in Nova Scotia, Canada, the US National Hurricane Center said, packing winds of up to 144 kilometers per hour and torrential rain.

The US National Hurricane Center predicted "it will be a powerful hurricane" when it makes landfall. Canada issued severe weather warnings for most of its eastern coast.

The Canadian Hurricane Center reported strong winds were recorded in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, the Magdalen Islands and western Newfoundland.

"It will definitely be a historic and extremely dangerous event for eastern Canada," said Bob Robicho, a meteorologist at the Canadian Hurricane Center, to reporters before the hurricane made landfall.

"It's a big hurricane (...) all that momentum is inside the storm, so it's very difficult for something like this to calm down," he added.

In the latest bulletin issued by the Canadian Hurricane Center, it was stated that weather conditions will improve in western Nova Scotia and eastern New Brunswick on Saturday.

At 9 a.m. GMT, the hurricane was in Nova Scotia, about 210 kilometers northeast of Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, and was moving north-northwest at 65 kilometers per hour, according to the Canadian Hurricane Center.

Nova Scotia authorities sent an emergency alert to phones saying that a power outage was likely and people should stay inside with supplies to last them for at least 72 hours.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described the storm as "bad," noting that it "could have significant impacts across the region."

In Halifax, stores have sold out of propane gas cylinders for camping stoves as residents stock up on large quantities.

"I'm hoping the hurricane will slow down when it hits the cold water, but it doesn't look like it will," Dave Boyce, who works for the Northern Yacht Club in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, told Canadian television.

The Bermuda archipelago had earlier called on residents to stay indoors as strong winds blew, but no deaths or major damage were reported as Hurricane Fiona passed about 161 km west of the island.

And the region, located 1,000 kilometers from the United States and frequent by hurricanes, is one of the most isolated places in the world, which makes evacuating it almost impossible in the event of an emergency.

Hurricane Fiona killed four people in Puerto Rico, an American region, and one death was reported in Guadeloupe, which is French, and two in the Dominican Republic, where a state of emergency was declared in three provinces in the east.