Arthur hits Maritimes: crews restoring power in wake of storm

The cleanup effort after post-tropical storm Arthur is underway in the Maritimes as thousands of people were still without electricity on Sunday.

NB Power reporting largest number of power outages in the utility's history

CBC News Posted: Jul 06, 2014 7:40 AM EDT | Last Updated: July 7, 2014

Damage after post-tropical storm Arthur in July, 2014. (Michael Stuart/CBC)

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Provincial government offices in Fredericton area will be closed Monday
NB Power says more than 100,000 customers were without power on Sunday
NB Power's CEO says about 50% of affected customers should have power returned on Sunday evening
Nova Scotia Power says electricity will be returned for most customers by Sunday evening

Post-tropical storm Arthur cleanup wasunderway in the MaritimesSunday as thousands of people werestill without electricity.

NB Power reported late Sunday that more than 100,000 customers in the province remained without power, nearly half in the provincial capital region. Nova ScotiaPower's website listed more than 65,000 outages.

Environment Canada lifted all storm warnings over land in the Atlantic region in the wake of the potent storm, which brought with it near-hurricane strength winds and torrential rains.

Gatan Thomas, the president and chief executive officer of NB Power, spoke to reporters on Sunday and offered an update on when many citizens will see their electricity restored.

"Fifty per cent of our customers should have power back by midnight tonight. The majority of our customers by noon tomorrow," Thomas said.

"And the remainder, the ones in remote rural areas the pockets of one or two customers, and there are more than 1,500 they will be probably until Wednesday or Thursday when we can back to them."

Bob Scott, a spokesperson for NB Power, said these numberof outages isthe highest the company has ever seen.

"We are at 135,00 customers [without power] right now and there is a possibility that those numbers could rise slightly this morning, depending on what comes in from the eastern side of the province," Scott said.

"The 135,000 would definitely be a record number for sure."

A large uprooted tree rests against a house in Oakland, N.S. on Saturday. (The Canadian Press)

NB Power had 110 line and tree-trimming crews working on Saturday.By Sunday, the number of crews working in New Brunswick jumped to155, which includes private contractors and crews from Maine, Quebec and EdmundstonEnergy. Another 40 crews wereexpected to join them lateron Sunday.

Thomas warned people not to deal with downed trees and lines on their own.

"Lines will become entangled with the trees. Don't take your chainsaws out we know a lot of New Brunswickers own chainsaws don't take them out. It's not prudent. It's very dangerous," he said.

"You have to treat every downed line as active and live."

Scott said NB Power was ready for the powerful storm.

"We are ready for it and we are getting even more people in. You will see an awful lot of activity around the province [on Sunday]," Scott said.

Scott said there were a few crews out assessing damage overnight but most crews were pulled from the road for safety reasons and to give them some rest.

NB Power said it restored power to 60,000 high-priority customers on Saturday.

NS Power says electricity may return Sunday

The hardest-hit communities in Nova Scotiaare in the Digby-Clare and Kentville-Wolfville areas. Nova Scotia Power saidpeople in those areas may have to wait until 6 p.m.for their power to come back.

Other communities may have to wait until11:30 p.m., while people in isolated places may have to wait untilMondayor evenTuesdayto be reconnected.

Post-tropical storm Arthur toppled trees and power lines as it moved through Nova Scotia on Saturday. These lines were found Sunday in Yarmouth. (Colleen Jones/CBC)

Nova Scotia Power said hundreds of workers are out trying to restore power.

"We have 73 Nova Scotia Power crews and an additional 35 contract crews and then [32]tree crews," said Stacey Pineau, a company spokesperson.

Nova Scotia Power said it restored power to about 20,000 customers overnight.

EastLink says it's experiencing "a service interruption" affecting customers in the Maritimes.

A recorded message on its 1-888 phone line for residential service says internet, cable and telephone services are all affected. It also says technicians are working to fix the problem.

There are still roughly 5,000 peopleon Prince Edward Island without power, according to Maritime Electric.

The company says there are 19 crews working on restoring power. The weakened winds will help with the restoration effort on Sunday.

Arthur weakening as it approaches N.L.

The Canadian Hurricane Centre issued a statement on Sunday morning that said Arthur was "slowly weakening." The remnants of Arthur aresouthwest ofStephenvilleand heading toward Newfoundland.

"Remnants of post-tropical storm Arthur are nothing more than some lingering gusty winds and a few pockets of heavy showers (Newfoundland and Cape Breton)," according to the Canadian Hurricane Centre.

On Saturday, the storm was downgraded from hurricane statuswith sustained winds of about 110 km/h as it approached landfall in theYarmoutharea of NovaScotiaat about 7:30 a.m.

Greenwood, N.S., set the recordfor the strongest winds as the Canadian Hurricane Centre indicated gusts reached 138 km/h.

Several other Maritime communities were hit with very strong winds:

Brier Island, N.S.: 128 km/h.
Yarmouth, N.S.: 111 km/h.
Lunenburg, N.S.: 108 km/h.
Charlottetown, P.E.I.: 105 km/h.
Fredericton, N.B.: 100 km/h.

The storm also brought heavy rains to many parts of theMaritimes.

All of New Brunswick received heavy rainfall.St. Stephen, in the southwestern part of the province, received 143millimetres of rain onSaturday the highest amount of rain from the stormrecorded in the Maritimes.

The town alsoexperienced some flooding on Saturday. However, police say the flooding is over and King Street, which was closed at 2 p.m on Saturday, has sincereopened.

The highest rainfall amounts on Saturdaywere all recorded in New Brunswick:

Noonan, N.B., 140mm.
Millville, N.B.: 127 mm.
Miramichi, N.B.: 122 mm.
Gasp, Que.: 67 mm.
Yarmouth, N.S.: 52 mm.
North Cape, P.E.I.: 27 mm.

Communities offer help

Several communities opened up public buildings for residents affected by the heavy rain and powerful winds brought to the region by post-tropical stormArthur.

Fredericton set up a reception and charging centre at the citys convention centre on Saturday. The centre will reopen on Sunday.The Red Cross will also be there to serve coffee and water.

Fredericton residents were lining up at gas stations early on Sunday morning. (Daniel McHardie/CBC)

TheQuispamsisCivic Centre will be open on Sunday for residents tochargecellphones or other electronic devices and get water.

Oromocto is also turning its municipal office into a reception centre on Sunday. The town says water and coffee will be available to residents affected by Arthur.

The widespread power outages, particularly in New Brunswick, forced many people to gas stations on Saturdayto fill up in order to power their generators.

Many gas stations in Fredericton are reporting they are out of gas. The crush of people heading to the few gas stations that remained open caused some tempers to flare.

Lee-Anne Donovan said people were waiting more than 20 minutes for gas on Saturday evening and their patience was wearing thin.

Donovan also said all the foodfrom their freezer has been sold.

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