Tens of thousands of Nova Scotians were in the dark Monday morning after heavy rain and high winds knocked out power across the province.

“We had about 50,000 customers without power about 7 this morning and about 45,000 of them were in the Metro area,” says Nova Scotia Power spokesperson Neera Ritcey.

The outages prompted several schools and businesses to close in the Halifax area. By late Monday afternoon, about 600 customers were still without power.

“We’re up against broken poles in some cases, power lines, strands of lines on the ground as well as trees and branches as well interfering and falling on lines,” says Ritcey.

She says the storm caused significantly less damage to Nova Scotia Power’s equipment than post-tropical storm Arthur, which left some Nova Scotians without power for more than a week in July.

However, Monday’s storm did result in flooding for some Lower Sackville residents, including Jean Borland.

“I paid $3,000 to have a sump pump put in, thinking I would never have water problems again. Here I am with water problems again,” says the 82-year-old Matador Court resident.

Borland is also frustrated by the frequency of power outages in her neighbourhood.

“It’s only been the last, I would say, five years out of my 34 years here that I have had problems with losing my power,” says Borland.

She plans to install a battery system for her sump pump so she won’t have to deal with flooding the next time her power goes out.

Her neighbour, Marvin Lee, says flooding only started about four years ago at the 34-year-old Matador Court complex.

“I got to take my washer and dryer and put them on wooden stands,” says Lee. “I shouldn’t have that washer and dryer four feet off the ground.”

“We’ve been investigating there for a couple of years now to try and find out if there’s any kind of problem with our system,” says James Campbell, a spokesperson for the Halifax Water Commission.

Campbell says Halifax Water can’t find any problems with its system, but local councillor Steve Craig wants to meet with residents, saying there are other flooding issues in his area.

“We’ve had flooding on First Lake Drive, on Sackville Drive, flooding in basements, things I’d heard about two years ago,” says Craig.

Power has been restored to most customers throughout the province, although Nova Scotia Power was still reporting 169 outages in Cape Breton as of 6:30 p.m.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Rick Grant