Thousands still without power a week after Fiona hit P.E.I.
A week after post-tropical storm Fiona devastated Prince Edward Island, tens of thousands of Islanders are still without power.
A total of about 34,000 homes and businesses are still without electricity, since it first went out last Friday.
Work to restore power has been slow, with crews facing challenges from what’s estimated to be thousands of trees down across the province.
"Record numbers of crews are here from across Canada and have been added to try to work through this as fast as we can, as fast as possible," said Premier Dennis King, "But we do know that some will remain without power for at least another 48 or 72 hours."
That puts power restoration for most Islanders done by Monday night however, that does not include over 1,000 households with damage to the lines running from the power pole to their house, which could be without electricity much longer.
"We were in to 10, 11 days during Dorian, on those individual outages," said Kim Griffin, Maritime Electric spokesperson. "So that’s one person at your house, one customer, one household."
More than 200 crews are in the province now, with dozens more still expected, and Griffin says the extra crews will stay here until all islanders have their power restored.
The priority remains critical infrastructure, like hospitals, seniors’ homes, gas stations, and grocery stores, as well as people's homes.
"We are first focusing on primary residences where trees and debris are a safety concern or access to their property is not yet available," said King.
Work is underway to replace the 531 poles broken in the storm, and Maritime Electric estimates they will be able to restore power to about 6,500 homes and businesses a day.
Progress moves unevenly because of varying damage and impact. Serious damage to lines that feed a small number of homes are lower down the list than problems which can be fixed quickly and will restore many people.
Comfort centres have been open since shortly after the storm passed, The province has also promised financial aid for those who lost food, suffered extensive damage, or could not work.
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