NB Power crews were back at work today, trying to restore power to areas of New Brunswick.

About 1,600 NB Power customers are in the dark, after what has been a challenging week for the utility and thousands of customers who lost power.

While the number of outages in the Fredericton and Moncton areas fell Friday, more heavy snow overnight caused outages in new areas, and some could stay that way until tomorrow.

“Yesterday with the second storm, we saw more outages come in through the northwest and northern part of the province,” says NB Power spokesperson Marie-Andrée Bolduc.
NB Power says crews have been hindered by wet, heavy snow, both on power infrastructure and the roadways.

“We were hearing reports of very treacherous road conditions, our crews were having difficulty accessing some of the sites. We were hearing of road closures or roads being blocked altogether,” explains Bolduc.

NB Power says about 200 line and cutting crews were on the ground today, with a few from outside New Brunswick, including Hydro-Québec.

Some New Brunswick residents were prepared, having purchased generators, especially in the aftermath of post-tropical storm Arthur in July of 2014.

“We’ve had to use it a couple times now, and we were really, really pleased,” says Fredericton resident Anna Olive.

NB Power says restoration will continue tonight, but could stretch into tomorrow.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Nick Moore.