Power outages in Atlantic Canada with more rain, wind on the way

Nova Scotia is continuing to deal with the effects of a slow-burning storm that began with heavy wind and rain on Monday.

According to Nova Scotia Power's outage map, nearly 45,000 customers were still without power as of 11 a.m. Tuesday.

The outages are spread across the province, with significant concentrations in the Annapolis Valley and on the South Shore, as well as in New Glasgow, Amherst and Antigonish.

Wind warnings remain in effect on Cape Breton Island, including in Inverness County, and Sydney Metro and Cape Breton County, while rainfall warnings are still in place for Halifax County, east of Porters Lake, and in Antigonish and Guysborough counties.

Les Suetes winds mean that on the island, some gusts may reach 130 km/h.

Ferry travel has also been affected by the weather, although service from P.E.I. is expected to resume at 11:30 a.m. from Wood Islands.

The next crossing for the Digby-Saint John ferry is from Digby at 11 a.m., while Marine Atlantic has cancelled all Newfoundland ferry crossings for the day.

A number of schools in the province are also closed today due to power outages, including:

• 10 in the Annapolis Valley;
• 20 that fall under the Chignecto-Central Regional Centre for Education;
• Musquodoboit Rural High School in the Halifax Regional Municipality;
• Rankin School of the Narrows in Victoria County;
• Greenfield Elementary and West Northfield Elementary on the South Shore;
• Islands Consolidated, St. Mary's Bay Academy and Drumlin Heights Consolidated School, which fall under the Tri-County Regional Centre for Education.

Crews working to restore power

In an interview with Information Morning Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Power's storm lead Matt Drover said crews are continuing to monitor the situation and will work to restore power throughout the day.

"It's been a slow-moving storm … which has had a pretty big impact on trees falling into our power lines," he said.

High winds mean crews are unable to get up in buckets to repair power lines. Drover said this is one factor that can make it difficult to estimate restoration times.

As winds die down, they'll be able to better assess the damage and how long it will take to restore power across the province.

"It's never a good time of the year to lose power but definitely this time of year, being a week before the holidays, we know how impactful that is," said Drover.

"And rest assured we're out there working around the clock to get your power back on."

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