Utility crews in rural New Brunswick raced on Friday to restore power to thousands of customers before Christmas, following a damaging windstorm earlier this week that knocked out electricity to more than 100,000 homes and businesses.
More than 10,000 customers were still without power in the afternoon, mostly in the Carleton, Charlotte southwest and central York Sunbury areas, according to the NB Power outage map. Utility spokeswoman Dominique Couture said 340 crews were in the field conducting repairs, with more than 800 people supporting the restoration efforts.
“We remain focused on our goal to restore all customers by Christmas,” Couture said.
Many outages affected individual homes, she said, adding that efforts were being concentrated in “areas of most impact.”
“Progress may appear slower, but we are now addressing more outages in rural communities, which can be hard to access and locate in remote areas,” she said. “We also know that the remaining damage is extensive, sometimes resulting in complex restoration work requiring multiple crews.”
The strongest wind speed recorded during this week’s storm in New Brunswick was 100 km/h at the Fredericton airport, while gusts in Saint John and St. Stephen were up to 93 km/h, Environment Canada has said. The wind knocked down trees and branches, both of which toppled electrical lines and damaged the transmission network.
Meanwhile, around 3,000 customers in Nova Scotia were without power Friday after strong winds and freezing rain overnight Wednesday, with the province’s east and Cape Breton most affected. Flooding occurred in the Sydney, N.S., area on Thursday, where most of the outages were concentrated.
Winter weather on Friday also led to the closure of provincial government offices in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality and in Victoria, Inverness and Richmond counties. Canada Post delayed or suspended deliveries in Cape Breton and in the Antigonish, N.S., area, as well as in several communities in the western part of Newfoundland, which was hit by strong gusts and more than 20 centimetres of snow.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 22, 2023.
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