Messy mix of snow, rain hits Maritimes, causing outages, closures

It could be sometime Thursday before some residents of New Brunswick have their power restored following a messy pre-winter storm — and there’s another storm on the way.

A blast of heavy, wet snow and cold rain caused power outages, school closures and flight cancellations Wednesday in the Maritimes.

New Brunswick was the hardest hit by the storm, with NB Power reporting over 46,000 customers without power at one point.

Marie-Andree Bolduc, a spokeswoman for the utility, said that number had been reduced to about 20,000 by late Wednesday afternoon.

“We have 129 crews on the ground and we’re expecting an additional 20 crews to join them tonight to keep working overnight,” she said. 

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The largest concentration of outages are in a line between Fredericton, Moncton and Shediac.

Bolduc said the biggest problem is heavy, wet snow that caused branches to make contact with the power lines.

She said they hope to have power restored to a majority of customers by late Wednesday night, but some people in isolated areas could be without power into Thursday.

“We anticipate more crews joining us Thursday. We are going to keep plugging at it as best we can, obviously keeping an eye on the next storm,” she said.

Environment Canada is forecasting up to 15 cm of snow across parts of New Brunswick starting early Thursday.

There were also power outages reported in Nova Scotia’s Pictou County.

Prince Edward Island also saw a significant accumulation of snow, with schools closing and flights into Charlottetown delayed.

The RCMP on the Island issued a warning about slippery road conditions and some health care clinics were closed for the day.

Environment Canada had weather alerts in place for much of New Brunswick, where snow accumulations could reach 25 centimetres in some communities by Thursday, while P.E.I. was also expecting some wet snow.

Parents in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were being advised to check school board notifications, as many schools were announcing cancellations and some buses weren’t running due to slick roads.

The Canadian Press