Power outages jeopardize Maritimers' holiday plans

People in Nova Scotia woke up Saturday morning with clear skies and sunshine. Some were even lucky enough to wake up to power.

The winds howled and tree branches swayed under the pressure. Waves crashed on the Halifax waterfront, with floodwaters damaging some local businesses

Wind gusts of 80 to 100 kilometres per hour picked up in the western part of Nova Scotia before making its way to the central area and moving east to Cape Breton.

Power outages were scattered throughout the province, with northern Nova Scotia hit the hardest.

“The biggest amount of customers without [power] is in Amherst right now,” said Matt Drover, storm lead for Nova Scotia Power, at about 11:30 a.m. Saturday.

The Nova Scotia Power crew spent the night working to bring back power in many households.

While the utility company spent weeks trimming trees, many of the outages were caused by trees falling on the power lines.

Drover said since post-tropical storm Fiona, hundreds of crew members have trimmed and turned over 4,000 trees.

“It still was the number one cause of the outage last night. Even with that work, there are still trees that -- when the winds are high enough -- will down on power lines.”

While skies were clearer today, the impacts of the storm remained. At Halifax Stanfield International Airport, where travel troubles have been piling-up in recent days, the storm only made things worse.

“The follow-up is what we’re disappointed in. They’re fairly dismissive once your flight is cancelled. There’s not a lot of support to get to the next flight,” said Jim Fischer, a passenger travelling to Calgary.

Another traveler changed their holiday plans due to delays.

“It was first delayed [a few times] and then cancelled. I then rebooked twice and then I decided to call and head back home to P.E.I. and try again in January and February,” said Erin Reid.

The cleanup continues during this holiday weekend -- an unexpected gift from mother nature that nobody asked for.