Nova Scotians without power after Fiona get by with help from family, friends

It's been a long two weeks for Phil Gardnerwith no end in sight.

Gardner, who lives in Valley, near Truro, was still without power on Sunday and said he doesn't expect he'll be getting it back soon.

Like many people, Gardner lost power when a tree fell during post-tropical storm Fiona last month, knocking down the mast connecting the power lines to his house.

Gardner joked that given how long everything takes to get done he may not have power restored until Halloween.

"I've lived here in this house for 30 years," he said.

"So after [Hurricane] Juan we got smart and we got an emergency supply of drinking and flushing water that would last three or four days,batteries, flashlights,a camp propane camp stove ... so we were we were ready for four or five days without electricity."

When a mast is knocked down or damaged, Nova Scotia Power will disconnect the power to the line and the homeowneris responsible for getting a certified electrician to repair the mast before power can be restored, according to the utility's webpage.

Gardner said a crew disconnected power to his mast on Sept. 30, but he has had difficulty getting an electrician to conduct repairs because of demand.

After finally gettingan appointment for an electrician to come next week, Gardner said the local electrical store is sold out of masts.

Neighbours helping

Hesaid neighbours on either side of his housegot their electricity restored and one has been providing him with power to chargedevices. The other has run a hose to supply water.

He said he and his wife went out for a Pictou County pizza on Saturday as their Thanksgiving meal but he might still barbecue a chicken forThanksgiving.

Nova Scotia Power continued whittling away at the remaining power outages over the weekend.

As of Sunday afternoon, the utility wasreporting fewer than 200 outages in the province, the majority in the northeast.

There were about 415,000 customers without power in Nova Scotia at Fiona's peak.

A tweet from the utility on Sunday acknowledged how difficult it was for its remaining customers to be without power on Thanksgiving weekend.

Marie MacDonaldlives in Pictouand had her power restored around 6 p.m. on Saturday.

MacDonald, who works at a nursing home,said being without power played havoc with her budget.

She said she would normally eat several meals at work but because she was going to be off work for a bit she stocked up her freezer. All that food spoiled.

She said she was forced to dip into the money she puts aside for paying bills to eat out when she was without power.

Now she's left figuring out how she is going to make ends meet for a little while, she said.

'Made the best of it'

MacDonald said she was fortunate to have family nearby with power and was able to shower and do laundry at their homes.

"I think most people probably made the best of it that they could," she said. " We had warming centres here that were serving hot meals ... Pictou really is a very warm, caring community."

MacDonaldsaid she plans to have Thanksgiving dinner with her father. He lives nearbyand has prepared a turkey.

She said she's not taking anything for granted and plans to install a propane stove so that she can enjoy a hot cup of tea at home if the power goes out again.