Thousands of people woke up in the dark Saturday morning after a ferocious storm blasted through Atlantic Canada, but power crews from as far away as Ontario are continuing power restoration efforts in Nova Scotia.

Nova Scotia Power launched the biggest pre-storm mobilization in its history, with 600 power line technicians and hundreds more support staff on hand before the storm hit on Thursday.

In Halifax, people living on Fuller Terrace in the north end said they were surprised to wake up with in the dark Saturday morning. An additional 300 customers lost power.

"When the storm first hit on Thursday and Friday, we didn't lose power either day. It might have flickered a little bit, and we kept ourcellphones charged up, but finally today it went down,” said homeowner Noel MacDonald.

Power crews arrived Saturday afternoon to fix the problem; meanwhile, Macdonald said he decided to keep warm by walking his dog.

Shamus Mason said he’s struggling to find a warm place to retreat.

“I’m trying to get a place to go as of now because all the shelters are full right now and Out of the Cold’s roof got ripped off so they’re closed,” said Mason.

Earlier Saturday, Nova Scotia Power said anyone still without power could expect the lights to be turned back on sometime during the day.

"The only remaining situations that we wouldn't be able to resolve today, is if a customer had damage to their own electrical equipment on their own home,” said NS Power spokesperson Tiffany Chase.

Despite high winds and frigid temperatures, by 5 p.m. Saturday, Nova Scotia Power said it had only 392 costumers left without power. The utility says it has restored power to more than 275,000 customers throughout the storm, which caused blackouts as it moved through the province from west to east. By Friday, most outages were in the Halifax area and Cape Breton, where winds hampered repair efforts until the afternoon.

The utility isaiming to complete the final restorations by late Saturday evening.

With files from CTV Atlantic Ron Shaw and the Canadian Press.