HALIFAX -- It's been a powerless weekend for thousands of people across Nova Scotia.
Utility crews could be found in western parts of the province Sunday, trying to reconnect electricity after freezing rain and wind brought down power lines and damaged power poles.
The day began with a number of single-customer outages in areas around Digby, Yarmouth, Shelburne, Bridgewater, Liverpool, and Bridgetown.
Michel Picot of Sunnybrook, N.S. lost electricity on Friday night after a tree was uprooted.
"We've managed to keep warm with some wood," said Picot.
Many people in similar situations depended on heat from burning wood or running a generator.
“The thing that bothers me most is people in Nova Scotia now, I think they feel they have to have an alternate power source, a generator or a small generator, just to maintain their home because of the frequency of the power outages,” said Al Matheson, a resident in Sunnybrook.
“It's just aggravating that it happens quite frequently in this area,” said Matheson. “Our area is one of the last places to get power back on when we do have the outages, and there never seems to be a proper answer from Nova Scotia Power as to why it takes so long.”
In a statement, Nova Scotia Power says many of the outages left on Sunday required the work of one or more crews. According to the utility, some customers needed to have their power metres repaired by an electrician before being reconnected.
“I hesitate to say we didn't really prepare for this outage because we didn't really expect it,” said Picot. “But next time, we'll be more prepared.”
At the peak of the outages, 114,000 Nova Scotia Power customers off of the grid.
At 6 p.m. on Sunday, 1,700 customers remained without power. The utility said most of those people would have power restored by the end of the night.
