Maritime line workers help U.S. recover from Hurricane Helene

Hundreds of Canadian line workers and technicians spent the past week in the United States helping restore power to hundreds of thousands of customers affected by Hurricane Helene.

Holland Power Services, an electric repair company with locations across the U.S. and Canada, have more than 700 Canadian workers helping to restore power, including roughly 250 workers from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island spread across 81 crews.

Crews have been working 16-hour days and the locals have been grateful.

“It's been an amazing experience,” says Steven Hansen, vice-president of operations for Holland Power Services. “They're the ones that are suffering. We are here to help, but they're doing everything they can to make us not only feel welcome, but to be part of the community and to be embraced by them.”

Hansen says locals have given him and his Maritime crews handwritten thank you cards, warm cups of coffee, and even a stack of pizzas for their efforts.

He says crews have had no complaints about working long days, with everyone doing what they can to restore power as quickly as possible. Hansen hopes only around 100,000 customers will be still in the dark by the end of the weekend.

“In large scale events like this, you need to bring in private contractors, you need to bring people from across the borders,” says Hansen. “It's just the way that the community has to band together because the scale of damage is beyond any one entity trying to work on it on its own.”

Hansen says some Maritime crews should be able to make their way back home by next week.