Ice and power outages disrupt the weekend for Nova Scotia

On this wintery weekend that caused major power outages and left an icy mess, Wayne Hatheway now has one major chore on his to-do list.

“Get these branches off our house.” said Hatheway, who lives in Lucasville, Nova Scotia.

Hatheway’s entire community, his own property included, is blanketed with ice and busted up trees.

He lost his power from Friday evening until late Saturday.

“24 hours, 28 hours or something like that,” said Hatheway.

More freezing rain on Saturday in the Antigonish and Cape Breton areas knocked out even more power.

“We actually had 30,000 more people lose our power yesterday afternoon; the total is now 120,000 and we are down to just below 20,000 who do not have power.” said NS Power Storm Lead Matt Drover, who added the ice is making the job of restoring power extremely difficult. “And not just in one part of the province, the entire stretch of the province from Digby all the way to Sydney.”

In Cape Breton, four comfort centres have opened up to give people a place to get warm, have a hot beverage and charge their phones.

"There are at Centre 200 in Syndey, the Louisburg Fire Hall, the Gabarus Fire Hall and Howie Centre Fire Hall," said CBRM Spokesperson Christina Lamey.

There are also comfort centres set up in Beaver Bank and Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.