SYDNEY, NS –More than 1,000 Cape Bretoners were left in the cold for nearly ten hours on Saturday during a planned power outage, causing concern amongst residents as temperatures dipped well below freezing.
Steve Smith is one of the thousand residential and commercial Nova Scotia Power customers in the Coxheath area of Sydney left without electricity; he says it was a challenge to stay warm.
“Well, we started out today by sleeping in as long as we could, so we didn’t have to get up in a cold house, and then we went out and got coffee, and we will probably go to the mall and get lunch somewhere,” said Smith.
The neighborhood has experienced several unexpected power outages in the last week, leading to school cancellations and business closures.
The Sydney Fire Hall was opened for people who needed to get warm and charge their electronic devices during the maintenance work.
“With the maintenance work that’s going on it’s very important. The temperatures outside are extreme. We certainly don’t want people to stay in their homes, we want them to come out here and enjoy the comforts of the fire station here, and we’ve opened our doors,” said Chief Dave Witzel.
But even with a warm place to go, residents say they wish there had been more consultation done before the outage.
“We would of loved for a warmer day, but again, we couldn’t plan for the weather, explained Nova Scotia Power spokesperson, Paul Breski.
“We had to plan for how quick we could get people here, and how fast we could do the job. We want to do it as safely and quickly as possible,” he said.
Breski says that although the work was inconvenient, it made sense to tackle the 10 hour job on a weekend because schools are closed, and the company deployed more resources to get the work done faster.
He says Saturday was also preferable over Sunday, because of the Super bowl.
“We checked out the best dates to do it. This allowed us to get the maximum amount of crews here and get it done as quick as possible, which was our goal,” said Breski.
Despite not being able to be in his chilly home today, Smith says he understands the logic.
“You can’t have power lines falling down in people’s front yards, it’s important that they did it,” said Smith, “And this type of response – I mean, I was not expecting this. They have dozens of trucks out here repairing the lines, so it’s been phenomenal.”
The power was restored to the area by 4 p.m.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kyle Moore.