More than 100 people were without power in the west end of Halifax yesterday, two days after hurricane Earl swept through. Nova Scotia Power spokesman David Rodenhiser said there were several new outages as a result of the after-effects of Earl. The blackouts were caused by broken branches and trees falling on power lines.
At the worst, 220,000 households and businesses were without power in the province because of the Saturday storm.
“We’re hoping to get most customers who are out back on (Monday),” Rodenhiser said.
By nightfall, power crews were able to reduce the overall number of outages across the province to a little more than 300.
Coun. Sue Uteck said the South End was hit pretty hard by Earl. Many area residents didn’t get their power restored until 11:30 p.m. Sunday.
Downed branches and tree limbs remain along many side streets.
“Of course, in every one of these things, there’s something to learn,” Premier Darrell Dexter said yesterday about the storm, which delivered wind gusts of up to 130 km/h in some areas of HRM.
“On balance, we had a reasonable response, and it will continue to get better.”
There was one death related to the hurricane. Johnny Mitchell Jr., 54, tried to save a boat that came loose from its mooring in Blind Bay near Bayside at approximately 2:30 p.m. Saturday. Mitchell dove into the water and tried to swim back when he went under.
