HURRICANE Bill has been downgraded to a storm after makinglandfall in the easternmost Canadian province of Newfoundland, an official from the US National Hurricane Centre has said.
"It did make landfall," NHC specialist Daniel Brown said.

"It is now moving over the southeastern part of the island."

Hurricane Bill lost strength yesterday as it moved up Canada's Atlantic coast.

But its still strong winds knocked out power in Nova Scotia and spawned deadly waves that killed a seven-year-old girl in the northeast US state of Maine.

Bill caused some damage in eastern Canada, where strong winds and rain knocked out power to 32,000 customers.

Some roadways in Nova Scotia were closed and more than a dozen flights from Halifax airport were cancelled as the storm passed through the area.

The Atlantic hurricane season began on June 1 and ends on November 30.

Bill's progress follows one of the calmest starts to the hurricane season in a decade, which researchers for the state of Colorado attributed to the development of an El Nino effect in the Pacific.