NS Power Hurricane Fiona Update: By the Region

As crews continue to work to restore power across Nova Scotia, they are also continuing to assess damage. 

Foot patrols continue and now that wind warnings have been lifted and its safe for our crews, we’ll also be using helicopters to patrol the lines to get a better idea of the extent of the damage.  Drones will also be used - it’s the first time we’re using this technology for storm response to get this real time look.

“Given the widespread damage of Fiona, we know there will be customers who face outages for multiple days, said Peter Gregg, NS Power President & CEO.  “It’s critical for crews to see the extent of the damage in order to help build the best restoration plans and get the power back on as quickly and safely as possible for our customers.”

Helicopters will be surveying damage on mainland Nova Scotia, particularly the Halifax Regional Municipality, Northeastern parts of the province and Cape Breton.

WESTERN (Annapolis Valley/Yarmouth/South Shore)

• The winds in this region were above warning levels exceeding 90km/hr.
• Restoration efforts in the western region of the province started overnight Friday into Saturday.
• The main cause of outages in the region is trees coming into contact with power lines.
• Over 50,000 customers have been affected in western.
• As of 8am today (Sunday), over 85% of those customers have been restored.
  

NORTHEAST (Truro/Pictou/Amherst/Antigonish/Guysborough)

• At the peak of the storm, winds reached 150km/hr (early Saturday morning).
• High winds continued throughout Saturday which prevented our crews from restoring power for the majority of the day.
• Damage in this region is due primarily to broken poles, trees on power lines, downed lines due to falling trees and trees on roads limiting access and making travel difficult for our crews.
• About 90,000 customers have been affected in this region. 
• As of 8am today (Sunday), over 16% of customers have been restored.

• At peak of the storm, winds reached 110km/hr at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport (early Saturday morning).
• High winds continued throughout the morning Saturday which prevented our crews from restoring power until lunchtime. 
• During that time crews were removing wires from cars and roads and responding to emergency calls and assessing damage on the ground.
• Damage in HRM is due primarily to trees coming into contact with power lines, downed lines due to falling trees and trees on roads limiting access and making travel difficult for our crews.
• About 210,000 customers have been affected in this region. 
• As of 8am today (Sunday) over 50% of customers have been restored.

CAPE BRETON

• The most significant damage was in the eastern part of the province including the Eastern Shore and Cape Breton.
• At the peak of the storm, winds reached 140km/hr (early Saturday morning) with winds above warning levels for 14 hours.
• High winds prevented our crews from restoring power for the majority of the day.
• During that time crews were removing wires from cars and roads and responding to emergency calls and assessing damage on the ground.
• Damage in Cape Breton is due primarily to hundreds of broken poles, trees on power lines, downed lines due to falling trees, washed out roads limiting access and making it difficult for our crews to move around.
• More than 65,000 customers have been affected in this region. 
• As of 8am today (Sunday), 25% of customers have been restored.
• Today we are adding more resources to our satellite Emergency Operations Centre in Sydney.  It will be a second command centre, much like our EOC in Halifax, where we continue to coordinate plans and resources for Cape Breton. 

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About Nova Scotia Power

Nova Scotia Power Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Emera Inc. (TSX-EMA), a diversified energy and services company. Nova Scotia Power provides 95% of the generation, transmission and distribution of electrical power to more than 525,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers across Nova Scotia. The company is focused on new technologies to enhance customer service and reliability, reduce emissions and add renewable energy. Nova Scotia Power has over 1,700 employees and $4.1 billion in operating assets. Learn more at www.nspower.ca.

Media Contact:

Jacqueline Foster

NSP Senior Communications Advisor 902-225-4735

Jacqueline.foster@nspower.ca