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Tens of thousands of Nova Scotia Power customers spent much of Saturday without power after high winds and rain hit the province overnight.
According to a statement from the utility, about 186,000 customers lost power during the storm.
Some flights at Halifax Stanfield International Airport were cancelled and delayed due to the weather, and ferry crossings between North Sydney and Newfoundland were called off for the day.
As of 6:09 p.m. AT, Nova Scotia Power’s outage map showed that about 25,000 customers were still without electricity.
Nova Scotia Power said more than 600 people were in the field Saturday working to restore power as soon as possible.
“Our crews have been working through some challenging conditions with high wind bringing trees and branches into power lines, broken poles and at times, poor visibility,” Pam Scully-Poirier, Nova Scotia Power’s storm lead, said in a statement earlier Saturday.
The utility said it was using a helicopter to patrol power lines in different parts of the province to search for damage.
In Kings County, the Greenwich Volunteer Fire Department was kept busy on Friday night , according to Chief Jason Ripley
The department responded to obstructions on roads, caused by trees falling on power lines, including on Deep Hallow Road.
“We had been called there for a tree that had blown over with the strong winds and in the process had snapped the pole off the base and pulled down all the power wires, communication wires and blew two transformers,” said Ripley.
In Halifax, the owners of Local Source Market were scrambling to get power restored after a tree came down on a power line connected to the store.
“We’re just kind of in a holding pattern, trying to find emergency crews to come in,” said founder and co-owner Sean Gallagher.
The grocery store, which sells food and gifts sourced from Nova Scotia farmers and artisans, has been without power since Friday night.
“We’ve got people’s turkeys and a huge parking lot full of people just like, dying to pick up their stuff, said Gallagher. “We’ve turned on a generator to keep our big walk-in fridge and freezer going.”
CBC meteorologist Ryan Snoddon said widespread gusts of 80 to 100 km/h hit Nova Scotia, southern New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
Peak gusts were in the 100 to 120 km/h range in exposed areas. The top recorded wind gust for Nova Scotia was 127 km/h in Monastery, Antigonish County.
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