Post-tropical storm Arthur battered the Maritimes today, at one point knocking out power to more than 290,000 homes and businesses.
With the number of outages climbing steadily throughout the day, officials with the Canadian Hurricane Centre said conditions of heavy rain and strong winds were likely to persist into Saturday evening.
The storm was downgraded from hurricane status with sustained winds of about 110 km/h as it approached landfall in the Yarmouth area of NovaScotia at about 7:30 a.m. AT.
In New Brunswick, the number of NB Power customers who lost service was more than 140,000, including more than 52,000 in the Fredericton area, at 10:30 p.m.
NB Power spokesman Bob Scott said high winds forced restoration operations in Fredericton to stop for the night Saturday.
“Right now, the winds will not allow us to put buckets in the air because they’ll just blow all over the place. There are still trees coming down here in the city and I can’t speak to the rest of the places, but there’s still a lot of trees coming down here,” he said.
"I’m looking out my window, which looks across the St. John River from the south side to the north side on the ninth floor of the NB Power building and there’s absolutely nothing on over on the other side of the river except for car lights.”
In Nova Scotia, as the storm moved northeast, power crews were able to make some headway on the number of people in the dark. At 10:30 p.m. AT, there were still more than 120,000 without power, down from about 144,000 customers at its peak.
RCMP issued a warning about falling trees, debris and downed power lines. In Onslow, N.S., firefighters had to cut apart a tree limb to rescue a man who was trapped underneath.
On P.E.I., Maritime Electric reported about 1,500 customers were in the dark at 10:30 p.m. AT.
"The front-line workers are facing some big issues out there, most of all, the windy conditions that they have to work in this time of year with the foliage on the trees. There's a lot of tree branches and trees coming in the lines which are causing most of the outages," said Kristopher Jackson, a spokesman for the Island power company.
The majority of outages are on the eastern end of the Island.
Jackson said 10 crews were out trying to restore power, and they're not in a position to estimate when the power will return.
With the number of outages climbing steadily throughout the day, officials with the Canadian Hurricane Centre said conditions of heavy rain and strong winds were likely to persist into Saturday evening.
The storm was downgraded from hurricane status with sustained winds of about 110 km/h as it approached landfall in the Yarmouth area of NovaScotia at about 7:30 a.m. AT.
NB Power spokesman Bob Scott said high winds forced restoration operations in Fredericton to stop for the night Saturday.
“Right now, the winds will not allow us to put buckets in the air because they’ll just blow all over the place. There are still trees coming down here in the city and I can’t speak to the rest of the places, but there’s still a lot of trees coming down here,” he said.
"I’m looking out my window, which looks across the St. John River from the south side to the north side on the ninth floor of the NB Power building and there’s absolutely nothing on over on the other side of the river except for car lights.”
In Nova Scotia, as the storm moved northeast, power crews were able to make some headway on the number of people in the dark. At 10:30 p.m. AT, there were still more than 120,000 without power, down from about 144,000 customers at its peak.
On P.E.I., Maritime Electric reported about 1,500 customers were in the dark at 10:30 p.m. AT.
"The front-line workers are facing some big issues out there, most of all, the windy conditions that they have to work in this time of year with the foliage on the trees. There's a lot of tree branches and trees coming in the lines which are causing most of the outages," said Kristopher Jackson, a spokesman for the Island power company.
The majority of outages are on the eastern end of the Island.
Jackson said 10 crews were out trying to restore power, and they're not in a position to estimate when the power will return.
As per the latest updates:
- Canadian Hurricane Centre statement: Arthur still giving strong winds, but is gradually weakening
- "Heavy rainfall is mainly over," Centre says
- Arthur approaching western Newfoundland, will make landfall Sunday afternoon
SOURCE: http://www.cbc.ca/
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