Thousands still without power in Newfoundland and Labrador after hurricane Larry

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. -

About 3,500 customers were still without power at midday Sunday as Newfoundland and Labrador continues the clean-up from Hurricane Larry.

The powerful storm lashed the southern coast of the province overnight Friday and into Saturday morning.

At the peak, about 61,000 Newfoundland Power customers were without electricity.

Utility spokeswoman Michele Coughlan says the outages were primarily caused by trees, still heavy with leaves, coming in contact with or bringing down power lines as well as branches and other debris blown around in the high winds.

She says all of the main lines are back on and crews have now turned their focus to the smaller pockets of trouble and outages affecting individual customers.

The City of St. John's has set up a couple of locations where residents can drop off tree debris.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2021.