Repairs underway as intense storm knocks out power across the Maritimes

More than 86,000 homes and businesses in Nova Scotia were in the dark this morning after an intense storm swept through the region.

A band of heavy rain and powerful southerly winds pulled down power lines from Yarmouth, N.S., to Cape Breton before moving on.

Large outages were reported in the communities of Amherst, Bridgewater, Dartmouth, Port Hawkesbury, Truro and Stellarton.

Just before 9 a.m., more than 8,000 homes and businesses were without electricity in P.E.I., and 7,000 NB Power customers were in the dark in central and southwestern New Brunswick.

At the Halifax Stanfield International Airport, a peak gust was recorded at 92 kilometres per hour, and the wind was even stronger in parts of Cape Breton, with gusts reaching 107 km/h at the Eskasoni First Nation and 103 km/h at Grand Etang.

Nova Scotia Power activated its emergency operations centre at 8 a.m.

“Our crews have been in the field overnight restoring power to those impacted by the high winds and rain,” Nova Scotia Power spokesman Sean Borden said in a statement.

“We have over 300 field workers restoring power for customers across the province.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 1, 2022.