ABOVE: There’s some wintery weather in store for the East Coast – and Moncton residents are already up to their knees in it!
FREDERICTON – An early blast of winter has buried parts of New Brunswick under more than 30 centimetres of snow, cancelling classes and knocking out power to thousands of homes and businesses.
Environment Canada says there’s more bad weather to come, with another five to 15 centimetres of wind-whipped snow in the forecast.
NB Power crews are working to restore electricity across the province.
“We’re at about 82 crews on the ground right now, that includes tree trimming crews and linemen,” said NB Power spokesperson, Marie-Andree Bolduc. “We’ve got people from Saint John Energy and Edmundston Energy. We’re expecting about 15 crews from Nova Scotia Power this afternoon to help out in the restoration efforts as well.”
At one point, about 52,000 customers were without power, mostly in the Fredericton region. And some have become used to losing power.
“We lost power for five and half days during Arthur, so 12 and a half hours doesn’t seem too bad, but still it’s colder than Arthur was,” said Fredericton resident, Norm Ralston.
“We’re still kind of in the assessment phase. The crews are concentrating on critical clients, like hospitals and nursing homes. That’s the first priority,” said Bolduc.
Because officials aren’t sure when they’ll be able to get everyone’s power back on, the city of Fredericton has opened two warming centres: Willie O’Ree Place and the Grant-Harvey Centre.
They’ll be open for 24 hours.
By Thursday night, about 13,500 New Brunswickers were without power, 7,300 in Fredericton.
WATCH: Storm hammers New Brunswick
Flights heading to the Halifax Stanfield International Airport from Moncton, Saint John and Fredericton have been cancelled because of the weather.
In P.E.I., Environment Canada says people living in Prince County should brace for up to 10 centimetres of snow and ice pellets before the storm moves on.
Most areas of Newfoundland are also getting hammered with heavy snow, with forecasters calling for 15 to 25 centimetres before the day is done.
With files from Global’s Emily Baron Cadloff
Comments