Over 20,000 Nova Scotia and NB Power customers were forced off the grid as the result of strong wind gusts and precipitation in some areas on Wednesday.
According to Nova Scotia Power, nearly 9,000 customers were off the grid as of 11 a.m. AT. The majority of the outages were in the Enfield area, where 2,456 customers were impacted by an outage, including the entire Halifax Stanfield International Airport.
As of 4 p.m. AST, that number has been reduced to 2,858 customers, with large outages in the areas of Peggys Cove, Richmond County and Cumberland County.
The strong wind gusts caused several delays for arriving and departing flights.
Nova Scotia Power activated its Emergency Operations Centre on Tuesday ahead of the pending windstorm, which was forecast to bring with it gusts of up to 100 km/h along coastal regions.
READ MORE: Nova Scotia Power activates Emergency Operations Centre ahead of nor’easter
According to Environment Canada, wind warnings remain in place for all of Cape Breton, as well as in southwestern regions.
“Additionally, rough and pounding surf can be expected along west- to northwest-facing shorelines of northeastern Nova Scotia and Cape Breton is associated with these strong westerly winds,” Environment Canada said in a weather advisory.
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Winds are expected to gradually diminish through the day Thursday.
According to Halifax Harbour Bridges, a trailer flipped on its side on the MacKay Bridge Wednesday morning, resulting in traffic being reduced to one lane and headaches for several motorists on their morning commute.
HHB closed the bridge to high-sided vehicles Wednesday morning due to the high winds.
In New Brunswick, over 15,000 NB Power customers were in the dark as of 4 p.m. AT, with a large majority of the outages in Northumberland, Miramichi and along the Acadian Peninsula, as well in the Moncton, Riverview and Dieppe areas.
Wind warnings are still in place for northern areas of the province. The winds are expected to slowly diminish into the evening, according to Environment Canada.
The weather has also resulted in some school closures in New Brunswick. All schools in the Bathurst and Dalhousie/Campbellton closed for the day Wednesday, as well as Riverside Consolidated School in the Anglophone East School District.
READ MORE: Some New Brunswick schools closing early due to snowfall
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