Power to remain out until next Friday for some on P.E.I.
Some on Prince Edward Island will be without power for another week, meaning some Islanders will have been without electricity for three-quarters of a month.
The latest estimate from Maritime Electric, the Island’s main power utility, shows electricity won’t be completely restored until Oct. 14.
Thousands of people have already been in the dark for two weeks.
Restoration efforts are taking four to five times longer than after Hurricane Dorian in 2019.
“It’s taking longer than they had anticipated,” said Maritime Electric spokesperson Kim Griffin. “Sometimes the damage is worse. Sometimes they might need more poles, or they may need just additional spans of wire. It just depends, but on average, that’s how much longer it’s taking.”
There was some confusion on the Island late Thursday, when the outage map, which had dropped to nearly 8,000, suddenly jumped to about 11,000.
“We drove around P.E.I. with our metre readers and started to take that information, and try to ping to try to figure out if we were accurate in our estimates for individual outages,” said Griffin. “What we’ve been able to find out is that we had more individual outages than we thought we had.”
The vast majority of about 9,000 remaining outages are individual outages, just a few people or even just a single house without power.
“It’s the opposite of Dorian,” said Griffin. “We had bigger numbers on the transmission side and were able to get them back on, but now it’s taking us longer on the individual side.”
Perhaps surprising, a home in Charlottetown, that sustained significant damage, still has power.
“The front mess is obvious, other than that she’s fine,” said Jim Farrell, speaking about his mother-in-law’s home. “She didn’t lose power, well, we all lost power, but she didn’t have any long-standing issues with it.”
Farrell didn’t get off so easy, his home hasn’t been plugged into the grid since the storm. It’s the only one left on his street, but he does have a generator.
He’s lived in the house for 35 years, and says he’s never seen anything like this.
“Longest power we ever had out maybe was, maybe, 12-15 hours, somewhere in there,” said Farrell. “Certainly not two weeks.”
The provincial Emergency Measures Organization issued a warning Friday afternoon that messy weather this weekend could knock down more trees and blow existing debris into roadways. That could further set back restoration efforts.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Maple Leafs fall to Bruins in Game 3, trail series 2-1
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
New Indigenous loan guarantee program a 'really big deal,' Freeland says at Toronto conference
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
'Life was not fair to him': Daughter of N.B. man exonerated of murder remembers him as a kind soul
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.