Some customers could be without power until Monday, says NB Power - Action News
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New Brunswick

Some customers could be without power until Monday, says NB Power

About 30,000 NB Power customers were still waiting for the electricity to come back on as of 8:00 p.m. on Sunday,after Hurricane Dorian's assault onthe Maritimes.

Outages peaked at around 80,000 because of Dorian

Saturday's rain caused flooding on McAllister Drive in east Saint John. (Submitted by Shanie Comeau)

About 30,000 NB Power customers were still waiting for the electricity to come back on as of 8:00 p.m. on Sundayfollowing Hurricane Dorian's assault on the Maritimes.

While the hurricane didn't hit New Brunswick directly, people in the province are feeling its effects. NB Power spokesperson MarcBelliveau said most of the outages are because of downed power lines, caused by Saturday's wind.

Belliveausaid there were 69 crews, 52contractorsand 20 vegetation management crews working to get power back on.

"There's a lot of work to be done to clear outsome areas and get to the poles, get to the wires," said Belliveau.

Boats in the Shediac Marina were tossed around by the wind and waves on Saturday, leaving lots to clean up. (Submitted by Manon Herbert-Ferguson)

Belliveau said some people may be without power overnight. Theycan check NB Power's website for more information on specific outages.

In Saint John, outages started early Saturday afternoon.Saint John Energy president Ray Robinson said there were about 5,000 customers without power at the peak, but that number wasdown to 200 by mid-day Sunday.

"Things are coming along," said Robinson. "We expect to have just about all of those back in power by the end of the day."

New Brunswick's Emergency Measures Organization is warning people to stay away from any downed power lines.

"No one under any circumstances should be touching them, or even going near them," said spokesperson Geoffrey Downey.

"There's probably a lot of damage to trees, both trees that have been downed and limbs that have been broken off and remain in the canopy, so if you're out walking about under trees, have a look up and make sure there's nota large branch that's just teetering."

Downey said to contact NB Power in the event of downed power lines.

The wind blew the roof of an old garage in Anse Bleu on Saturday night. (Gabrielle Fahmy/CBC)

Riverview, Moncton, and Dieppe were the hardest hit, with 23,000 without power at one point. In Bouctouche and Shediac, 15,000 werewithout power.

"In Moncton, it's a little more complicated because there was so much wind last night in that area that we have to really do assessing today where other areas we were able to get some sense of restoration yesterday."

At one point on Saturday night there were 80,000 customers without power.

On the Acadian Peninsula, in Anse Bleu, people lost power around 7 p.m. on Saturday when the roof of an old garageblew onto the road and hit power lines. Power was reconnected early Sunday morning.

"Big waves, and lots of wind and lots of rain, that's what was going on last night," said Hedard Cormier, who lives in Anse Bleu."A lot of people were scared, but everything went alright."

Cormier said for him, Saturday's weather was just another storm. Now it's on to the cleanup.

"We're used to that," said Cormier, "I've seen worse for sure."

With files from Vanessa Blanch, Gabrielle Fahmy