Sixth day of no power for many rural southeast New Brunswick residents

The effects of the ice storm that hit parts of New Brunswick on Monday are still being felt in rural areas south of Moncton.

It's been a long, hard week without power for residents of Riverside-Albert, Harvey, New Horton, Waterside, Alma and a few other small communities.

Clarke Brewster lives in Harvey, which is just up the road from Riverside-Albert. He was filling up gas tanks at the village's station in order to re-fuel his generator.

"She's been kind of rough," said Brewster when asked about his week. "I've been living on my own. My wife just went into a nursing home last Thursday so I'm trying to get used to being by myself."

Brewster said the biggest obstacle has been trying to stay warm.

"Keeping a little bit of heat in the house is the biggest thing. I have a wood furnace but I got to have the generator running so the fan will blow the heat," said Brewster.

He said he's never seen a storm hit the power system as hard as Monday's.

"This is the worst I've seen it here," he said.

Saturday was the sixth day without power for Brewster and roughly 630 other NB Power customers in Albert County.

Ryan MacDonald of nearby Caledonia Mountain is one of the lucky ones. His power has been back since Wednesday.

"Yeah, this one is a bit extreme. The ice storm took out a lot more trees and everything else than we all expected," said MacDonald.

Steaming coffee and a hot meal was waiting for anyone who needed it at the Rec Centre in Riverside-Albert, which is now a daily warming station.

Village of Fundy Albert Mayor Rob Rochon is urging residents to reach out to their neighbours, especially if they're seniors, to see if they need help.

"Right now, with six days of people not having power, we've got people who are losing food. People's homes are getting very cold and my concern is if this continues people's homes are going to be damaged as a result of freezing water lines," said Rochon.

Former Riverside-Albert Mayor Jim Campbell said people in the region are a resilient group.

"Well, we're a rural community. The Village of Riverside-Albert has approximately 400 people and we all kind of look after each other. If someone is unfortunate and doesn't have a generator we'll bring one over and make sure they get a meal," said Campbell.

Heavy ice build up from Monday's storm caused extensive damage to transmission lines in the area.

On Tuesday night, a power line technician from NB Power died and another seriously injured while doing restoration work roughly 20 kilometres away on the Albert Mines Road.

Rochon said being without power for six days is a bit extreme, but people understand it's not as simple as flipping a switch.

"We also need to be mindful that there was a serious accident that probably contributed to the delay," said Rochon. "So, we're very mindful of that and people's hearts are really going out to the NB Power family."

Rochon brought portable generators and water to warming centres in Alma, N.B., which is also in the dark.

NB Power spokesperson Dominique Couture confirmed Saturday morning that restoration work is underway at the outage site in Albert County.

"Due to the complexity of the repairs required, this may take time," said Couture in a statement to CTV News. "We anticipate being able to restore power to customers some time Sunday."

Couture said NB Power understands being without power for a long period of time is difficult to cope with.

"We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this causes and appreciate our customer’s continued patience and understanding as we work to restore their service," said Couture.