Earl packs a punchLong power outages for some
By Helen Murphy GUYSBOROUGH – Local residents were reminded once again this past weekend that hurricanes are unpredictable creatures. Even Friday night’s forecasts called for the hurricane to track more on the NB side of the Maritimes Saturday, but Earl had other ideas, veering to the right and bringing more damage to Guysborough County and the Eastern Shore than many had expected.
Thankfully damage was limited to the predictable branches strewn across lawns and roadways and some trees uprooted. But some residents were affected by extended power outages and lost telephone service.
Some areas of the District of St. Mary’s were still without power at midday Tuesday. Warden David Clark said West Side Waternish and Glenelg remained without power three days after the storm.
“People are frustrated,” he said of being without power for three days. “I found there weren’t very many crews in our area at all. Personally I only saw one crew with three guys in it.
“It’s no disrespect to them; they can only do what they can do,” he said of the staff working to restore power.
Residents from the Port Hilford and Indian Harbour Lake area also lost phone service for an extended period.
Residents all along the Eastern Shore and some points quite inland reported their homes and cars being covered with salt spray carried onshore from the Atlantic. Clark said he could barely see out of his windows in Melrose after the storm because of the salt spray.
Provincially, the service-restoration and clean-up efforts were lauded as being very successful after Earl passed through.
“I would like to thank all our partners for pulling together and responding so quickly and efficiently to Hurricane Earl,” said Ramona Jennex, minister of Emergency Management. "I also extend my sincere appreciation to Nova Scotians for being so prepared for this event. It’s great to see neighbours continuing to help each other recover from the storm.”
By Sunday morning, Nova Scotia Power crews, with the help of our partners from out-of-province, had restored electricity to more than 210,000 customers across the province. |