Thousands without power as storm moves through the Maritimes

Thousands of people were without power and many schools were closed in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick Friday as yet another storm brings wet and windy weather to the Maritimes.

Nova Scotia Power opened its emergency operations centre on Thursday in advance of the storm. The utility says the EOC provides a central place to coordinate planning for outage restoration and response.

“It has been a busy winter storm season.  We are preparing for our seventh storm in as many weeks,” Sean Borden, Nova Scotia Power’s storm lead, said in a news release. “We will ensure we are well positioned across the province in order to be able to respond as needed for our customers.” 

The utility says there are 400 crew members working to restore power across the province.

Nova Scotia Power was reporting 269 active outages affecting nearly 5,000 customers across the province as of 8:30 p.m. Friday.

In New Brunswick, 1,085 NB Power customers were without power as of 8:30 p.m.

Maritime Electric was reporting 29 customers without power as of 8:30 p.m. Friday.

The weather and power outages forced a number of schools to close. Classes were cancelled in the Strait and Cape Breton-Victoria Regional centres for education. There was a handful of other school closures in Nova Scotia, while some schools dismissed students early due to ongoing power outages.

• See a full list of school closures, cancellations and early dismissals

In New Brunswick, all schools were closed in the Anglophone East and Anglophone North school districts. There were some closures and early dismissals in the other school districts as well.

Prince Edward Island schools did not report any closures Friday.

TRANSPORTATION AND FLOODING

Police in the Maritimes are warning motorists and residents about poor road conditions and flooding.

Travel advisories were in place Friday for some highways in New Brunswick -- some due to snow and ice and others due to flooding.

The City of Moncton, N.B., warned that heavy rain was causing flooding around the city, while flooding affected transit routes In Saint John, N.B.

In Nova Scotia, a number of roads and highways were closed across the province due to flooding and washouts, while a downed tree blocked a road in Dartmouth, N.S.

Strong winds and choppy water forced Halifax Transit to suspend Alderney Ferry service temporarily Friday afternoon.

WARNINGS IN EFFECT

Environment Canada has issued flash freeze, rainfall and wind warnings for all of Nova Scotia.

Most of New Brunswick is under flash freeze and rainfall warnings while a snowfall warning has been issued for Campbellton and Restigouche counties. Freezing rain warnings are in effect in the Miramichi and Mount Carleton areas.

Flash freeze warnings are in effect across Prince Edward Island. Kings and Queens counties are also under wind warnings while a rainfall warning has been issued for Prince County. 

KALIN’S CALL

The peak of the southerly winds hit Friday morning for southern New Brunswick, P.E.I. and Nova Scotia, with some of the strongest gusts reaching between 90 km/h and 115 km/h.

Heading into early Friday afternoon, New Brunswick and P.E.I. are moving past the peak of those winds. Nova Scotia will move past the peak by late Friday afternoon.

The change comes with a turn in the wind direction from the south to the northwest. While diminishing into and through Friday evening, the northwest winds are ushering in some much colder air. Temperature falls of 10 degrees in an hour were reported in New Brunswick, with the shift in wind direction.

New Brunswick and P.E.I. should be back below zero by mid-afternoon Friday. Nova Scotia should fall below zero by late afternoon and early evening. Wet, untreated surfaces and any remaining precipitation will turn icy quickly due to the fast fall in temperature.

The wind will continue to come down overnight, but it will be colder. Most low temperatures for the region will be several degrees below freezing or even down into the minus-teens and 20s.

This image shows reported peak gusts in the Maritimes at weather station sites up until 1 p.m. on Feb. 18, 2022.

This image shows reported peak gusts in the Maritimes at weather station sites up until 1 p.m. Friday.