More than 25,000 Nova Scotia Power customers are without power as heavy rain, wind and snow swept across the province.
“Transmission interruptions in Memramcook, N.B., have shut down the transmission interconnection that links our two provinces,” NSP spokeswoman Tiffany Chase said in a news release.
Power outage map
Weather forecast by SaltWire meteorologist Cindy Day
The interruption resulted in roughly 100,000 customers losing power, said Chase, on top of the earlier outages caused by a transmission interruption near Port Hawkesbury.
The height of the outage, affecting 247,000 customers, neared hurricane Juan’s power outage of 300,000 customers in 2003.
High winds and snow caused outages in several areas of Cape Breton, Cumberland County and northeast Nova Scotia.
Cindy Day, SaltWire Network chief meteorologist, said winds gusted to 100 kilometres per hour.
Areas in Cape Breton were expecting to see up to 70 millimetres of rain, while Cumberland, Colchester and Pictou counties were preparing for up to 25 centimetres of a snow.
Kings District RCMP reminded drivers to treat non-functioning traffic lights as a traditional stop sign.
Restoration times for most areas range from 4 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., according to the Nova Scotia Power website.
The bad weather has also shuttered many schools in the province. The Cape Breton-Victoria, Chignecto-Central and Strait regional centres for education closed their schools for the day.
The Annapolis Valley regional centre cancelled classes at West Hants schools and would later dismiss students at schools without power.
The Nova Scotia Community College’s Cumberland, Amherst, Marconi, Pictou, Strait, Truro, Wagmatcook and Ivany campuses are closed for the day.
Halifax Regional Centre for Education sent students home shortly before 11 a.m. because of multiple power outages, while students at some South Shore regional centre schools are being dismissed an hour early.
Dalhousie, with the exception of Sexton campus, and St. Francis Xavier universities have cancelled classes for the day. Mount Saint Vincent and Saint Mary’s universities have cancelled classes, but will re-evaluate evening classes this afternoon.
Multiple flights at Halifax Stanfield airport have been delayed or cancelled.
The power company activated its emergency operations centre on Wednesday at noon in preparation for the storm.
