Okanagan FortisBC crews head east to help with Fiona cleanup

Power line technicians and operations supervisors from FortisBC’s Okanagan and Kootenay offices have headed east and are chipping in to restore power to Maritime Electric customers who are still without power after post-tropical storm Fiona struck.

“Even with our experience, it’s shocking to see so much damage — it’s hard to explain how the wind can bring down so many trees, flip RVs on their sides and tear roofs off of houses. Every line seems to have a tree on it,” John Radies, operations supervisor with FortisBC,  said in a press release.

“The people of PEI just went through a surreal event and have been without power for days. It gives you a very good feeling to see the smiles on faces when you show up to repair power in their neighbourhood, then even a bigger sense of gratification when you restore power and know you just made someone’s day.”

The operations supervisors from FortisBC are leading a crew of two dozen power line technicians, pole setters and utility-certified arborists from New Brunswick who are working to clear trees and repair lines along the coast in central Prince Edward Island.

FortisBC power line technicians from Kelowna are working directly with Maritime Electric crews to repair main transmission lines, while FortisBC crews from the Kootenays and South Okanagan are working east of Charlottetown to bring power back to pockets of customers in the Georgetown region once these higher voltage lines are back in service.

There are an additional 240 crew members from the Fortis Inc. group of companies across Canada who are helping with the restoration efforts including FortisAlberta and Newfoundland Power.

The last time FortisBC crews were called in to assist outside provincial borders was when the Turks and Caicos Islands sustained considerable damage from Hurricane Irma in 2017.

Crews are expected to remain in PEI until end of this week.

According to the Canadian Hurricane Centre, the storm made landfall  over eastern Guysborough County, N.S. As it passed over Hart Island, the storm has an unofficial recorded pressure of 931.6 — making Fiona the lowest-pressured storm on record to make landfall in Canada.

The fierce storm toppled a number of trees across the region, with some falling into power lines, cars and houses, and there have been multiple reports of blocked and washed out roads as crews begin assessing damage in areas where the storm has already passed.

More than 415,000 Nova Scotia Power customers were affected by outages Saturday morning — almost 80 per cent of the homes and businesses it serves.

According to the Nova Scotia Power outage map, about 367,000 customers are still without power as of 4 p.m.

— with files Alex Cooke

5:50 Parks Canada gives update on Cape Breton region