Tens of thousands of Maritimers lost power early Wednesday morning as a messy and blustery mix of freezing rain, ice pellets and strong winds moved through the region.
NB Power reported more than 100,000 customers had lost power, while 12,000 customers in Nova Scotia were also without electricity.
As of 6 p.m. Wednesday, the majority of outages in Nova Scotia had been restored, while New Brunswick still has a long way to go.
For many homeowners, losing power was just the start.
"I woke up this morning to about five inches of water in my basement,” said Moncton resident Roger Cormier.
"We had no power all night and that was part of the problem,” said Moncton resident Rhonda Carter. “We do have a sump pump down here, but because the power was off, it didn't kick in."
Freezing rain pelted much of northern New Brunswick, resulting in some school closures and midday closure announcements at several universities.
A layer of ice is covering power lines in the southeast, central and northern parts of New Brunswick.
Power crews are being brought in from outside New Brunswick, including from Nova Scotia.
"By the end of the day, we will have about 245 crews on the ground from NB Power, local and external contractors and from other jurisdictions, trying to get people their power,” said New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant.
Michael Schroeder's home on Fredericton's north side has been without electricity since about 5 a.m.
"It was a transformer because I know what they sound like and it was a huge bang,” Schroeder said. “It's frustrating because everyone else around us has power."
As for when the grid will be back in order, NB Power says it's too early to offer predictions.
"The storm has moved from eastern New Brunswick, from Buctouche right up through Miramichi and the Acadian peninsula and it is still raging over there right now. So we have not been able to assess all the damages," said Gaetan Thomas, president and CEO of NB Power.
Environment Canada also issued a freezing rain warning for parts of Nova Scotia, as the mix of rain, slush and ice pellets made driving hazardous in some parts of the province.
The rain and freezing rain also prompted police in Prince Edward Island to urge people to either stay off the roads or slow down to cope with poor driving conditions.
In downtown Halifax, strong easterly winds brought gusts of close to 100 kilometres per hour early in the morning, scattering construction debris on downtown streets and resulting in power outages in parts of the city.
Hope for Wildlife's white tail deer enclosure collapsed in several places. None of the animals were injured but it will be costly to repair.
“It was a pretty wild storm. The winds and the rain were the worst I've seen in a while,” said Hope Swinimer of Hope for Wildlife. “When we built this unit about 11 years ago, it was about $30,000 to put together and that was with a lot of donated labour.”
The Department of Transportation in New Brunswick said there were slushy patches on the Trans-Canada highway from the Quebec border to Grand Falls, and from Grand Falls to Woodstock travel wasn't recommended due to the treacherous conditions in the morning.
The Mounties issued a no-travel advisory on Route 95 from the Woodstock area to Houlton, Maine.
In Moncton, public transit schedules were cancelled with plans to update the situation by mid-morning.
Environment Canada also predicted the storm would move north and bring freezing rain and heavy rainfall to Newfoundland and Labrador.
Schools throughout the Southwest Coast and Stephenville were closing for the morning, some for the entire day due to impending ice storm.
With files from The Canadian Press and CTV Atlantic’s Kayla Hounsell and Mike Cameron.
