**** NSP Media Release
NS Power Hurricane Fiona Update
Crews are gaining more access to some of the hardest hit areas, as restoration efforts continue across the province
This is a huge undertaking. Together with the Canadian Armed Forces, Department of Natural Resources and other support personnel, roads are being cleared and access to hard to reach areas, allowing our crews to get in, ensure the area is safe, prepped and ready to start repairing and rebuilding power lines and poles.
More than 1400 people are in the field and hundreds more behind the scenes, helping to restore power to
customers – and more are on the way.
“We are seeing unprecedented damage to our poles, lines and equipment due to the hurricane force winds from Fiona and thousands of trees that have fallen,” said Matt Drover, NS Power Storm Lead. “With the support of so
many, we continue doing foot patrols, using ATVs and flying drones to reach those off-road areas and hard to reach places.”
The majority of power line technicians, damage assessors, forestry technicians and field support staff will be in the
Halifax Regional Municipality, Northeast and Cape Breton regions today. We are making progress with restoration but there’s still a lot of damage to work through. We expect the majority of customers to get their power back by Friday, but there will be customers who will be out into the weekend and some into next week.
QUICK FACTS:
• About 415,000 customers lost power during Fiona, as of 6am today (Wednesday), more than 310,000 have been restored.
• In addition to the provincial Emergency Operations Centre in Halifax, there are two satellite EOC in Truro and Sydney. These are command centres where we continue to coordinate local plans and resources for the
regions.
• Together with the Canadian Armed Forces we have set up additional staging sites in Sydney and Pictou County to support our restoration efforts. This is where we coordinate and dispatch crews – a one stop shop for materials, fuel and food.
• There are still lots of lines and wires down. For your own safety please treat them as if they are energized. Stay back the length of a bus 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 link provided.
• We encourage customers to watch the outage map for the latest information on their outage:
outagemap.nspower.ca
NS POWER VIDEO AND PHOTOS:
• Drone footage of staging area Mayflower Mall, Sydney: https://youtu.be/01v-saswkxs
• Northeast Region video (Pictou County): https://youtu.be/yhq07MDALnw
• Cape Breton pictures (Sydney & Glace Bay): https://youtu.be/5CcYGWcXNg0
WESTERN (Annapolis Valley/Yarmouth/South Shore)
• The main cause of outages in the western region is trees coming into contact with power lines.
• Over 50,000 customers have been affected in the western region. As of 6am today (Wednesday), there are
less than 20 customers to be restored.
• The remaining outages are a result of more significant damage – many of them requiring both forestry crews and power line technicians to complete the restoration.
• As the remaining customers are restored, we will be moving crews east to help with efforts in other regions.
NORTHEAST (Truro/Pictou/Amherst/Antigonish/Guysborough)
• There are over 500 people on the ground in the northeast region including power line technicians, forestry technicians and damage assessors.
• We have set up a satellite Emergency Operations Centre in Truro – a command centre where we will continue to coordinate plans and resources for the Northeast region of the province.
• Together with the Canadian Armed Forces we have set up a staging site in Pictou County to support our
restoration efforts. This is where we coordinate and dispatch crews – a one stop shop for materials, fuel and
food.
• The Canadian Armed Forces and Department of Natural Resources personnel are in the region helping crews remove trees and brush and running supplies.
• We continue assessing the severity of the damage caused by the storm. We are using drones again today to
continue assessing damage in off-road/ hard to access areas.
• Damage in this region is due primarily to broken poles and downed lines due to falling trees, trees on power lines, 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 6am (Wednesday), 59% of customers in thenortheast have been restored.
HRM (Halifax/Dartmouth/Sackville/Bedford/Windsor/Musquodoboit/Chester)
• There are over 400 people on the ground in this region including power line technicians, forestry technicians and damage assessors.
• A drone will be flying and surveying damage in Hubbards and on Tancook Island today.
• 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 and making travel difficult for our crews.
• About 210,000 customers have been affected in this region. As of 6am today (Wednesday), 96% of customers in HRM have been restored.
CAPE BRETON
• There are over 500 people on the ground in Cape Breton including powerline technicians, forestry techniciansand damage assessors.
• Together with the Canadian Armed Forces we have set up a staging site in Sydney to support our restoration
efforts. This is where we coordinate and dispatch crews – a one stop shop for materials, fuel and food.
• The Canadian Armed Forces and Department of Natural Resources personnel are also on the ground in Cape Breton helping crews remove trees and brush and running supplies.
• The most significant damage was in the eastern part of the province including the Eastern Shore and Cape Breton.
(Cape Breton continued)
• We continue to assess the severity of the damage and are gaining more access to some of the hardest hit
areas. We are using drones again today to continue assessing damage in off-road/ hard to access areas.
• Damage in Cape Breton is due primarily to hundreds of broken poles and downed lines due to falling trees, trees on power lines, washed out roads limiting access and making it difficult for our crews to move around.
• There is also a satellite Emergency Operations Centre in Sydney – a command centre where we continue to coordinate plans and resources for Cape Breton.
• More than 65,000 customers have been affected in this region. As of 6am today (Wednesday), 61% of
customers in Cape Breton have been restored.
