Hundreds still without power after nor’easter sweeps across Nova Scotia

Only a few hundred people remain without power in Nova Scotia after a nor’easter left thousands without electricity and travel delays to parts of the province.

READ MORE: Hazardous conditions expected as nor’easter blasts into Maritimes

At the height of the storm, more than 50,000 people were without power. By about 12 p.m. Wednesday Nova Scotia Power said they had restored power to 98 per cent of customers.

As of 4 p.m. the utility’s outage map showed about 400 people were still without electricity.

The utility said about 134 crews – 277 people – including power line technicians, tree crews and damage assessors, were working on restoring power.

Caitlin Walker with Nova Scotia Power told Global News the number of crews on the ground helped get power back up quickly.

“It was extreme conditions overnight they were working in, but I would attribute it to planning ahead and again just having 277 people out in the field and on that,” Walker said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It was extreme conditions overnight they were working in, but I would attribute it to planning ahead and again just having 277 people out in the field and on that," Walker said.

The weather conditions also resulted in travel delays for people.

Halifax Stanfield International Airport experienced numerous delays on morning and early afternoon departures and arrivals, while Marine Atlantic rescheduled its trips Wednesday. Both the 11:45 a.m. and p.m. trips to Port aux Basques, N.L. were rescheduled to 9:30 p.m. while the 11:45 a.m. trip from Newfoundland to North Sydney, N.S. has been scheduled for 11:45 p.m.

Environment Canada meteorologist Barrie MacKinnon told The Canadian Press wind gusts reached a high of 110 kilometres per hour in the Halifax area with sustained winds in most areas of the province of between 60 and 70 km/hr.

Walker told Global News that crews had to wait for winds to calm as they wouldn’t send crews into the “buckets” if wind speeds were excessive, such as 80 km/hr.

Walker said people could visit the utility’s outages map to see if their area has an outage and can also report an outage on social media or by calling 1-877-428-6004.

“We won’t stop until every last customer has their electricity back,” Walker said.

–With files from The Canadian Press