Igor cleanup underway in Newfoundland

Tens of thousands of people across Newfoundlandwere without power Wednesday as crews tackled the aftermath of Hurricane Igor, a storm that swept a man to sea andcrumbled bridges and highways.

Newfoundland Power estimated that about 30,000 customers were still without powerby lunchtimeWednesday,down from 50,000 households and businesses that were in the dark late Tuesday. Company official Bob Pike said theutility's crews were making good progress restoring power to neighbourhoods where lines weresnapped.

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams took to the air on Wednesday to survey some of the areas that had been hardest hit by Tuesday's flooding.

Sunny morning skies belied the damage caused by Igor, which brought more than 200 millimetres of rain to some areas and winds often exceeding 140 km/h.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the federal government would provide disaster assistance as the cleanup effort kicked into gear.

The Eastern School District closed most of its schools, with schools in its Avalon West region closed for at least the morning.

Several highways and roads were closed, including parts of the Trans-Canada Highway and most of the Burin Peninsula regional highway.

Transportation across Newfoundland was severely affected by a deepcrater on the TCH at Terra Nova National Park. Traffic on the TCH was also disrupted at Thorburn Lake, police said.

Federal and provincial government officials said crews are hoping to fix the massive gap at Terra Nova by late Thursday afternoon.

"Unfortunately, we have our drivers held up on both sides of the road closure," said Gord Peddle, an official with the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association. "Both sides [are] just more or less waiting it out."

On the Burin Peninsula regional highway, crews were responding to at least four washouts between Goobies, at the TCH turnoff, and Marystown.

Meanwhile, asearch was expected to resume Wednesday for an elderly man who was swept out to sea after Igor caused the pavement he was standing on to collapse beneath his feet.RCMP said the 80-year-old man, who was on Random Island in Trinity Bay, disappeared under water before others could reach him. Winds were too high for a helicopter to reach the area on Tuesday.

Igor was headed to the Labrador Sea on Wednesday morning, leaving in its wake a path of destruction that smashed infrastructure, knocked down countless trees and snapped power lines like string.

The cleanup will be measured not in hours and days, but in weeks and months. Tom Hedderson, Newfoundland and Labrador's minister of municipal affairs and transportation, said work needs to start immediately.

"The main thing now is to connect any of the breaches in the roads [and] try to get our municipal services up to scratch because some sewer lines are gone. Water is a big concern," he said. "So, in the aftermath there's a lot of work."

The storm has posed challenges for many services. RCMP reported that some of their own detachments, including the force's headquarters in St. John's, were without electricity. Sgt. Boyd Merrill said the outages have hindered the force's ability to work at full capacity.

The storm had shut down or severely affected water supplies for some communities, such as Gander, which was rationing its water supply. In Clarenville, emergency centres were set up to provide safe supplies.

Health-care managers have scrambled to cover areas where road access has been cut off.

BellAliant said it has been able to maintain power at most of its telephone and cellphone towers,but about 1,800 customers were without service on Wednesday morning.

Environment Canada said it recorded a peak wind speed of 172 km/h at Cape Pine, in southeastern Newfoundland. At St. John's International Airport, which had to temporarily halt flights, winds peaked at 137 km/h.

The storm set records. In St. Lawrence, on the Burin Peninsula, 239 millimetres of rain fell. Officials said so much rain fell in such a short period of time that Environment Canada's equipment in Bonavista malfunctioned. About 135 millimetres fell in the town on Newfoundland's northeast coast during one five-hour period alone.