The number of New Brunswickers without power continues to fall after a storm knocked out electricity to roughly 50,000 customers Thursday.
Some parts of the province were buried under more than 30 centimetres of wet, heavy snow that loaded down trees and power lines.
At one point Friday morning, NB Power crews were still working to restore electricity to about 3,000 customers. Most of the outages were reported in the Fredericton and Sussex areas.
As of 5 p.m. Friday, 1,300 customers were still without power and the utility says some outages will run into the weekend.
“Ninety-nine per cent by tonight is still on target, end of evening, so the few customers that would remain in seasonal properties, I would anticipate probably by, hopefully by the end of the day Saturday,” says NB Power spokesperson Marie Andree Bolduc.
Restoration efforts began early Thursday. NB Power says 82 crews were working to restore electricity across the province and crews from Nova Scotia Power, Edmundston Energy and Saint John Energy also assisted in the restoration efforts.
Fredericton residents Cheryl Stewart lost power early Thursday and fired up her generator a short time later.
“It’s costly for the gas for the generator,” says Stewart. “It’s going to be costly for our propane that we’re using.”
Stewart went almost a week without power following post-tropical storm Arthur earlier this year. She says she was prepared for Thursday’s outage, and hoped NB Power would be too.
As the reconnection efforts continue in the wake of the storm, some residents are expressing concerns over what the next storm might bring.
“There you are at home with no power, no lights, no means of communications, no food,” says Fredericton resident Lisa McBride. “A couple of days is too long.”
With files from CTV Atlantic's Andy Campbell
