Power crews are arriving in big numbers to New Brunswick, from all over the Maritimes and south of the border.

A trio of power trucks from Prince Edward Island took the ferry to the Kingston Peninsula Monday morning.

The rural area north of Saint John is one of the hardest hit, where hundreds are without electricity, including Howard Heans.

“This is the last pole in the Peninsula right here,” adds Heans.

His power line has been dead for eight days.

“We’re lugging water from the river to flush the toilets on a regular basis,” explains Heans. “We’re trying to get all our chores done before four o’clock before it gets dark.”

The P.E.I. crew immediately goes to work clearing icy branches away from power lines.

It’s a time consuming job, but it has to be done before electricity can be restored.

Some residents say there hasn’t been enough regular maintenance and tree trimming around the lines in recent years.

“Nothing has been maintained at all over here,” exclaims Peninsula resident Tony Sheehan. “You just sit back and see what is going to fall over on the lines, and hope for the best that the power doesn’t go out but obviously the power is going out.”

Many people in the area have been without power for more than a week.

Crews have been racing against the weather forecast that says temperatures are expected to get much colder as this week goes on.

An extra blanket of overnight snow makes the job that much more challenging.

There are power and tree trimming crews working on the Peninsula from all three Maritime Provinces, and from Massachusetts.

“We got to clean the line so the power company can get the power back on,” explains Massachusetts tree trimmer Kevin Galbraith.

The Americans say the cold work is offset by a warm reception.

“We’ve been getting people beeping, waving, thank you’s, hugs, everything,” says Darren Confar, who is also a tree trimmer from Massachusetts. “It’s nice.”

Some residents have been using their restored power to make coffee for the line crews.

“To show my thanks to these guys,” says resident Ron Howard. “They’re working hard, people are complaining, I’m not. They’re working as hard as they can, it’s the least I can do to help them out.”

The number of outages declined steadily today in the hardest hit areas of St. Stephen and the Saint John suburbs, though crews had to respond to new problems in Fredericton and Moncton.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Mike Cameron