‘It is pretty sad actually’: Saint John residents get first look at damage left by Lee

When the sun rose this morning in Saint John, N.B., the first stop for many residents was King’s Square.

“I went to high school just up across the street here,” says resident Jason Jones. “This is a place I use to walk by hundreds of times, so yes, it is pretty sad actually.”

On Saturday morning a pair of 100-year-old trees in the over 200-year-old park were blown over like toothpicks in the early hours of Lee.

King’s Square lies right in the heart of the city’s uptown, prompting many residents to stroll down to get a first-hand look at the damage.

“They’ve been here for a long time,” notes Romero Paul, who strolls through the park everyday. “There is a lot of art here in Saint John, and those trees were a part of it.”

“My son plays up here a lot,” says Tia Rector. “Poor little boy is going to be so confused with his park.”

Clean up work is well underway in the Port City, with King’s Square expected to be tidied early this week. The city has yet to announce if new trees will be planted to make up for the loss.

Other areas along the Fundy coastline also found themselves in clean up mode following Saturday’s storm. In both St. Stephen and St. Andrews, N.B., there is still a number of fallen trees and branches needing to be cleaned up in the days to come.

The biggest focus in the province at this time in terms of Lee recovery is getting the lights back on for all customers.

“As of noon today (Sunday) approximately 11,000 customers remain without power due to the impacts of Lee,” said NB Power spokesperson Dominique Couture. “We know over the weekend a little over 90,000 customers were impacted, and we have restored power to about 85 per cent of those customers.”

The majority of the remaining outages reside in either Fredericton, N.B., or Charlotte County. NB Power says they expect to have full service restored by Monday.

“Our restoration was supported by a team of over 700 people,” says Couture. “That includes our power line technicians out in the field. It also incudes certified utility arborists who are supporting our power line technicians to be able to access those lines and access that infrastructure. We also have additional crews that came in to support that came in from provinces like Quebec or even areas like New Hampshire.”

NB Power reminds residents to notify the company if they are still experiencing an outage. More information on estimated restoration times can be found on their website.

Click here for a photo gallery of the impact of post-tropical storm Lee in the Maritime provinces.