Broken tree limbs wiped out electricity in many parts of the municipality yesterday, although most homes and businesses affected by hurricane Bill were expected to be back up and running by yesterday evening.
“Our expectation is that we will have all customers in Halifax with their power restored by end of day today,” Nova Scotia Power spokeswoman Stacey Pineau said shortly after 3 p.m.
At that time, she said 5,000 customers in the Halifax area were still without power, with outages affecting “almost all parts of the city.”
Across the province more than 25,600 customers were without power, with more outages expected as the storm swept through Cape Breton.
“We’ve got people up there who will be working throughout the night,” Pineau’s colleague David Rodenhiser added later.
At the height of the storm, 40,000 customers were without power, he said, but that number dropped to a little more than 1,000 by 9:30 p.m. — and only about 170 across HRM — mostly in the Lucasville area.
The province’s Emergency Management Office sent out a reminder yesterday afternoon telling residents to stay away from any downed power lines.
Despite heavy winds and rain, there were no car crashes around HRM because of the hurricane, police said.
“It wasn’t a bad day at all for us,” said Sgt. Mark Hobeck, watch commander for Halifax Regional Police. “There were a few pockets of power outages and some traffic lights out, but really nothing major at all.”
Halifax RCMP Cpl. Joe Taplin agreed “the roads were very quiet,” adding only a handful of cars hydroplaned off Highway 102 and most people seemed to stay home.
