Nova Scotia Power is activating its Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) on Friday in response to hurricane Dorian’s expected arrival in the province this weekend.
According to N.S Power, the EOC is the nerve centre for outage restoration planning and response and is staffed with employees representing all aspects of the company.
Nova Scotia Power said it will operate its EOC until the last customer is safely restored.
READ MORE: Hurricane Dorian headed to the Maritimes and eastern Quebec
“We have been tracking Dorian closely and preparing for several days,” said Karen Hutt, president and CEO of Nova Scotia Power.
“We know this type of weather can cause fallen trees on lines and damage to our equipment, resulting in outages. We are mobilizing close to 1,000 personnel to respond to hurricane Dorian, and we will be ready to safely restore power to customers as quickly as possible.”
Hutt said the company’s preparation include bringing in several hundred power line technicians from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Quebec.
WATCH: Aerial images reveal widespread destruction of Abaco Islands by Dorian
In addition, Nova Scotia Power will have forestry crews, planners, damage assessors, engineers, supervisors, communication experts and customer care representatives at the ready.
“Teams will be staged over the course of the day on Friday across the province to ensure we can mobilize our response as soon as it is safe to do so,” said Hutt.
Nova Scotia Power are also encouraging customers to plan for their safety, such as having an emergency kit that includes flashlights, a battery-powered radio and fresh water, and monitoring local weather forecasts
READ MORE: Dorian inches north towards the Carolinas with an eye to Atlantic Canada this weekend
According to a media release, crews will begin restoring power as soon as conditions are safe; if winds are gusting above 80 km/h, they have to make on-site assessments of whether to stand down for safety.
In situations where there are multiple power outages, Nova Scotia Power restores power in phases to ensure critical services like hospitals can stay open before beginning work in other areas.
Larger outages on transmission lines and in substations are restored ahead of smaller outages to restore electricity to the greatest number of customers.
Hutt said Nova Scotia Power is coordinating closely with the Nova Scotia Emergency Management Office.
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