Hydro Ottawa is sending workers to Nova Scotia to help that province’s own power utility as it deals with the aftermath of post-tropical storm Fiona.
Mayor Jim Watson said the city was sending between 10 and 15 line technicians Sunday and early Monday to the Atlantic Canadian province, which has seen damage including widespread power outages, washed-out roads and storm surge along the coast following one of the strongest storms to ever strike Eastern Canada.
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“At this point, this is what the local power company needs from us. If they require more, we will be on standby to offer more crews,” Watson said on Twitter Sunday morning.
“My thanks to those skilled workers en route.”
Nova Scotia Power’s outage map showed more than 240,000 customers were still without electricity as of Sunday afternoon. Over the weekend, Fiona swept through that province and New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador — where record-breaking storm surge destroyed several homes — as well as Quebec’s Iles-de-la-Madeleine and Gaspé regions.
Nova Scotia Power CEO Peter Gregg said in an update video posted online early Saturday evening that as of that time, power had been restored for about 60,000 customers but continued poor weather conditions had been preventing crews from making progress in certain areas.
“There’s a lot of damage out there. While we’ll keep at it, there are likely going to be multiple-day outages for many of our customers.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said the federal government would be deploying members of the Canadian Armed Forces at the request of Nova Scotia and will do the same for other provinces that ask for help.
In the remaining Atlantic provinces, Prince Edward Island had more than 82,000 without power as of Sunday afternoon while New Brunswick had more than 13,000 customers waiting for their power to return. In Newfoundland and Labrador, there were still more than 2,500 customers without electricity.
With files from The Canadian Press
@hydroottawa will be sending between 10 and 15 line technicians later today & early tomorrow to Nova Scotia. At this point this is what the local power company needs from us.If they require more we will be on standby to offer more crews. My thanks to those skilled workers enroute
— Jim Watson (@JimWatsonOttawa) September 25, 2022
