Thousands in eastern N.S. without power after heavy rain, strong winds

About 2,000Nova Scotia Power customers remained without without electricity Sunday evening after high winds and heavy rain spread across the province overnight.

The outage numbers dropped through the day, down from a high of11,000 earlier in the morning. The utility expected to have most customers reconnected before midnight.

Most of the outages are in eastern mainland Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, according to the provincial utility'soutage map. The outages began late Saturday.

There were clearer skies andcalmer winds across theprovinceon Sunday.Maximum wind gusts of over 100 km/h were reported by Environment Canada in parts of Cape Breton and eastern Nova Scotia Saturday.

Between 40 to 70 millimetres of rain wasforecastedinNova Scotia.