Nova Scotia Power says it’s ready to respond to winter storm

Nova Scotia Power says it’s ready to respond to the winter storm that brought heavy snowfall to most of Nova Scotia on Tuesday morning.

The agency says it has more than 300 field technicians in place across the province who have been working to restore power overnight and in the early morning.

A release says 655 customers along the south shore had their power restored.

“We are expecting significant heavy wet snow, rainfall and winds up to 100 km/h across the province,” Lia MacDonald, a vice-president at N.S. Power, says in the release.

“We want our customers to know we are ready, and we are responding as it is safe to do so.”

Environment Canada has issued a number of weather warnings for the Atlantic region, as snow, rain, ice pellets and strong winds are expected Tuesday into Wednesday.

All of Nova Scotia is under a rainfall warning, with anywhere from 25 to 80 millimetres expected to fall — the highest amounts expected along the coast. Wind warnings are also up for central and southern parts of the province, where damaging gusts could reach up to 100 kilometres per hour.

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Nova Scotia Power said in the release that contractors from New Brunswick were brought in Monday night to assist in storm response.

MacDonald said the company is working with Public Health to ensure all COVID-19-related protocols are being followed.

“Contractors from New Brunswick have been isolating in their hotels while they wait to complete mandatory COVID testing before they are deployed to assist in power restoration,” MacDonald said in the release.

As of 1 p.m., under 4,500 customers are affected by a power outage, according to the outage map.