'Phone calls haven’t slowed down': Electricians, Nova Scotia Power continue to chip away at outages

Most people in Nova Scotia still without electricity after post-tropical storm Fiona are in the northeastern part of the province, where both electricians and Nova Scotia Power crews are working on individual outages.

The utility said Wednesday that about 80 per cent of customers without power are individual homes that require one or more crews to complete final repairs.

The power meter on Laura Bennett’s house in Crowes Mills, N.S., came to its end after it became full of water during the storm. A tree on her property also toppled, ripping down her meter mast.

Bennett ran her generator intermittently for 12 days, which she says cost her $400 in gas.

On Wednesday, she was waiting for Nova Scotia Power to put a new meter on her house after getting necessary electrical repairs, but said she was frustrated the utility hadn’t given her a timeline.

“I know that there’s people out there in the same situation, or in far worse situations, I just want information,” she said. “I need to know cause I need to plan accordingly.”

As of Wednesday morning, Bennett was among the more than 1,500 single customer outages in northeastern Nova Scotia.

Most of the single customer outages require certified electricians to fix meter masts first.

“The phone calls haven’t slowed down,” said electrician Steve Sorensen on Wednesday. At that point, he had 40 mast jobs on the go and another 40 in the queue.

He added that getting the necessary repair supplies can sometimes be challenging.

“Some days we don’t have anything, next day we have a lot, but it goes out quickly. We’re just doing our best.”

Officials say there is light on the horizon.

“Our target for completing the restoration process in the northeast is Sunday of this weekend,” said Nova Scotia Power’s northeast emergency operations centre lead Lia MacDonald.

The utility says it’s working on getting each individual customer still affected.

“There are a variety of reasons why it’s happening in this order, but we will get there and we will be focused on all of this until it’s done, including everyone who is in that situation,” said MacDonald.

Powers crews arrived at Bennett’s home Wednesday afternoon with her new meter, restoring her power.