600 customers still without power in eastern P.E.I.

About 600 customers in eastern P.E.I. are still without power, Maritime Electric said around 9:40p.m. on Thursday.

"Winds, rain and weather are hitting our crews but they continue their efforts to restore power. We currently have 620 customers without power," saidMaritime Electric's Kim Griffin.

11,000 without power at one point

As many as 11,000 customers were without power for parts of the day as wind and rain caused problems with transmission lines.

"We've had fluctuations in the afternoon up and down several thousand," Griffin said.

"Our crews have been able to get thousands back on today once they identified the problems being caused on our transmission system. We got hit by the weather today but our seasoned crews worked hard to find the problems, cut trees if needed and restored power within hours."

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Griffin said the wind and weather conditions in the east are different than what what people in Charlottetown were experiencing. She said a crew member told her Thursday "the wind feels like it's going to lift you off your feet."

Power out since Sunday for some

A combination of ice, heavy snow and strong winds did a lot of damage in the eastern end of the province Sunday.

The problem was made worse with more snow Wednesday and further power outages, and Thursday's mix of snow, wind and rain.

Griffin said some of the customers affected now had power briefly restored previously, only to have it knocked out again.

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