About 5,000 Islanders remain in the dark as crews continue restoration efforts

Maritime Electric used a helicopter again Thursdayin an effort to assesswhether further damage was causedby Wednesday's wind and rain.

The number of customers without power as of8:23 p.m.AT Thursday was 5,131.

"We felt that it was important to get the helicopter back up just in case anything dead is leaning or might have even looked problematic for us," said utility spokesperson Kim Griffin said.

Crews assessing damage from the air found an additional 10 poles down, but Griffin said it isunclear if those were missed right after the storm or if they fellWednesday.

"It certainly has been slow going and I know how upset people are. I'm hearing it," she said.

'Number of pole fires'

The number ofcustomers without power has been reducedfrom almost 11,000 Wednesday morning, but the utility said there have been challenges.

"We lost our airport substation, where we have Brackley and Covehead feeding into that station," Griffin said, "We had a number of pole fires yesterday."

Griffin said six communities still hadmore than 500 outages, and said the focus Thursday wasgetting those back on.

• Victoria Cross: 1,100
• Alberton: 1,000
• Kensington: 1,000
• Wellington: 700
• Dover: 700
• West St. Peters: 600
• Rattenbury: 500

Trees have been the issue, both taking down power lines and blocking access to downed lines. Griffin said at St. Peters Harbour crews had to clear 25 trees from a road just to get to the power lines. Workers from the Department of Forestry joined in on that work Wednesday.

"They've been an incredible help. This is what they do and they're so very efficient at it," said Griffin.

More P.E.I. news