**** NSP Media Release
NS POWER: HURRICANE FIONA UPDATE
Crews continue assessing damage caused by the significant winds from Hurricane Fiona and restoring power to customers across the province. About 415,000 customers lost power during Fiona, as of noon today more than 230,000 have been restored.
“While progress is being made there is still a lot of difficult work ahead,” said Matt Drover, NS Power Storm Lead.
“We’ve been able to start getting a better look at some of those hardest hit areas with drones and helicopters and it is reinforcing how widespread the damage is.”
Some of that damage includes:
• thousands of trees on power lines
• hundreds of broken or leaning poles due to downed trees
• downed transformers
• fallen trees blocking roads
Many of these repairs are complex, take longer, and require multiple steps before power can be safely restored. In some cases:
• trees have to be removed to access streets
• debris has to be removed from power lines
• new equipment or material has to be brought in
• once the area is cleaned up the broken poles and/or other electrical equipment can start to be repaired or entirely rebuilt
NS POWER VIDEO AND PHOTOS:
• Photos of damage/crews working across the province: https://youtu.be/dTXsNma-xmk
• Drone footage from Glace Bay: https://youtu.be/dTXsNma-xmk
QUICK FACTS:
• Over 1,000 power line technicians, forestry technicians and damage assessors in the field, as well as hundreds of people behind the scenes working to support our customers and crews. Additional crews are coming from
New England, Ontario and Quebec.
• There are still lots of lines and wires down. Please treat them as if they are energized. Stay back and call us and report it right away (1-877-428-6004).
• If a customer’s electrical equipment is damaged – such as a meter mast – they need a certified electrician to
make repairs before NS Power can safely restore power. A list of electrical contractors can be found in the link provided.
• We encourage customers to watch the outage map for the latest information: outagemap.nspower.ca
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.
