Heavy rain, high winds leave thousands of Nova Scotians without power

Thousands of Nova Scotia Power customersin Cape Breton and northern Nova Scotia have had their electricity restored after an outageTuesday morning.

About 4,000 customers were affected through parts of Cumberland and Colchester counties.

By Tuesday evening, Nova Scotia Powersaid about a thousand customers were still in the dark, mostly in northern Cape Breton, from Black Point to Ingonish.The utility said on its website that high winds and snow were the cause.

The estimated restoration time for that outage is8 p.m. Tuesday.

All schools in theChignecto-Central Regional Centre, which includesCumberland County, Colchester County, Pictou County and the Municipality of East Hants, were closed on Tuesday.

Outageslistedin Middle Musquodoboit, and from Port Hood to Inverness in Cape Breton, were restored by Tuesday evening.

Heavy rain was the cause of those outages, according to Nova Scotia Power.

Environment Canadaissuedwind warnings for most of Cape Breton and the province's north shore, with gusts reachingup to 90 km/h.