Almost 30,000 without power as storm moves through N.B.
Wind and other warnings expected to last until early Saturday
Environment Canada said warnings for all regions of the province would likely be in effect until early Saturday.
There were four separate warnings out for Bathurst alone: snowfall, storm surge, wind and rain. Storm surge warnings were also place for the Bay of Chaleur from Miscou Island to Campbellton.
New
Brunswick has had recent experiences with storm surges, like this one
along the Northumberland Strait, during post-tropical storm Fiona. (Ed Hunter/CBC)
Environment Canada says water levels are expected to exceed "high astronomical tide, with water inundating vulnerable sections of the coastlines." The warning says coastal flooding, beach erosion, minor infrastructure damage and coastal road washouts are expected.
According to the N.B. Power outage map, almost 29,450 customers were without power at about 8:30 p.m., up from about 3,000 in late afternoon. The outages were occurring in almost all parts of the province,
In southern New Brunswick, power lines were brought down at Woodmans Point, near Grand Bay-Westfield, and were lying across Route 102, which is now closed, the RCMP said.
Wind warnings are in effect for the whole province and rainfall warnings for central, southern and eastern regions.Some northeastern parts of the province were expected to get up to 110 km/h winds.
The wind even took down a traffic light Friday afternoon in Saint John.
A traffic light was blown off its pole during high winds in Saint John Friday afternoon. (Graham Thompson/CBC)
Flying? Keep an eye on the sky
Fredericton International Airport public relations manager Kate O'Rourke said the airport is always ready for poor weather, but it appeared it would get lucky with just a rainstorm.
Fredericton fared better than Saint John and Moncton, where a few flights were cancelled in the evening or early on Christmas Eve.
O'Rourke advised people to check their flight status before heading to the airport, since it's possible planes coming from other places in Canada, where the weather is worse, could change plans.
"The air network is a network," said O'Rourke. "Challenges at any airport can create those kind of knock-on effects, whether it's because a traveller is connecting through that airport, or whether the plane's coming from that airport. So definitely, you know, keep your eye on what's happening in the rest of the country."
Fredericton
International Airport public relations manager Kate O'Rourke said
people should check their flight status before going to the airport
because their plane could be coming from somewhere with bad weather. (Aniekan Etuhube/CBC)
All three of the major airports, Saint John, Fredericton and Moncton, had some flight cancellations. All of the cancelled flights involved planes that were supposed to come from Toronto.
Air travel isn't the only travel that's been affected. The Confederation Bridge, which connects P.E.I. and New Brunswick, has restricted access to certain vehicles including those pulling trailers, motorcycles and high-sided vehicles like trucks, tractor-trailers and buses.
Travel not recommended in certain areas, police say
Slippery roads were reported in some areas, including Fredericton, where the forecast was mostly for rain and strong winds.
Early in the afternoon, New Brunswick RCMP tweeted that travel is not recommended on Route 2 between Upper Kingsclear and Bedell, as well as Route 95 between Woodstock and the United States border. The tweet said "driving conditions are extremely poor."
On the government of New Brunswick's 511 that shows road conditions and advisories across the province, Route 2 is listed as "covered."
With files from Aniekan Etuhube
Storm surge warnings in place across N.B., thousands still without power
Environment Canada warns of flooding, coastal road washouts
Environment Canada issued a storm surge warning in the Bay of Chaleur from Miscou Island to Campbellton. The warning says coastal flooding, beach erosion, minor infrastructure damage and coastal road washouts are expected.
Water levels are expected to exceed "high astronomical tide, with water inundating vulnerable sections of the coastlines."
Wind warnings were in effect across the province Friday, but high winds subsided Saturday morning. (Graham Thompson/CBC)
According to the N.B. Power outage map, over 43,000 customers were without power as of 9 a.m. AT — up from about 30,000 on Friday night. Outages have been reported in almost all parts of the province.
In southern New Brunswick, power lines were brought down at Woodmans Point, near Grand Bay-Westfield, and were lying across Route 102, which is closed, RCMP said in a tweet Friday night.
Wind warnings are in effect for the whole province and rainfall warnings for central, southern and eastern regions. Some northeastern parts of the province were expected to get up to 110 km/h winds.
Power Restoration | Rétablissement du courant
NB Power | Énergie NB<noreply-nepasrepondre@communication.nbpower.com> | Sun, Dec 25, 2022 at 2:11 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Thousands of customers still without power in N.B. Christmas Day
N.B. Power crews working to restore power for more than 3,000 customers still affected
More than 3,000 customers were without power as of 5:30 p.m. AT, according to the N.B. Power outage map. Peak outages on Saturday saw more than 71,000 customers lose power.
Outages have been reported in almost all parts of the province, with Kent County and Madawaska County some of the areas more affected as of Sunday afternoon.
N.B. Power spokesperson Marc Belliveau said there are more than 500 crew members and 30 contractors working on restoring the outages as quickly and safely as possible. Many customers can expect to get power back on or before Dec. 27, N.B. Power said in a tweet Sunday afternoon.
Winter
storms hit most of Canada over the weekend. Environment Canada is
warning of snow squalls in areas of New Brunswick throughout Sunday
morning. (Carlos Osorio/Reuters)"We understand that losing power is difficult any time of year but especially during the holidays," he said.
Belliveau said the holiday weekend's storm is one of the largest province-wide events New Brunswich has seen in 25 years, causing more than 650 invidual outage incidents.
Special weather statement in place
Environment Canada issued a special weather statement for the Fundy coast and along southeast New Brunswick at 3:30 a.m. AT.
Snow squalls are expected throughout Sunday morning and into the evening, the statement said. Roadways and walkways may become difficult to navigate and drivers should be prepared for "winter driving conditions."
Storm surge warnings ended across the province Saturday afternoon, Environment Canada said.
Storm surge warnings were in place most of the day Saturday in the Bay of Chaleur from Miscou Island to Campbellton.
All other weather warnings or alerts in the province were lifted as of 5:30 p.m. AT Saturday.
- If the power or data on your device is low, get your storm updates on CBC Lite. It's our low-bandwidth, text-only website.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Crews still working to restore power to over 1,100 N.B. Power customers
Outages concentrated in Carleton, Victoria and Madawaska counties
Just over 1,150 customers still had no electricity as of 3:30 p.m. Monday as a result of a storm that brought heavy wind and rain to the province on Friday.
Most of the 170 outages were concentrated in Carleton, Victoria and Madawaska counties, according to N.B. Power's online outage map.
Marc Belliveau, a spokesperson for the utility, said many of those outages were expected to be reconnected by about 11 p.m. on Monday, however some customers could still be without electricity on Tuesday.
"It's very difficult to say [when electricity will be restored] until we get into certain areas and start our work," Belliveau said.
"We always encourage people to go to our website and check the estimated times of restoration because they can change during the day depending on the complexity of repairs."
Belliveau said Friday's storm appears to be have been one of the worst N.B. Power has had to respond to in the past 25 years.
Whereas some recent storms like post-tropical storm Arthur caused damage in specific areas, Belliveau said Friday's storm impacted the entire province, resulting in more individual outages over a large area.
"One [outage] might be one or two houses, but it still needs somebody to fix those wires or fix a broken pole or take branches off, so it's a very labour-intensive endeavour."
Belliveau said 71,000 customers were left without power at the peak of the outages.
That prompted N.B. Power to deploy about 500 crew members to respond across the province, he said.
"By far the majority of the outages were caused by branches bringing down lines or making contact with lines and so on, but there was also dozens of poles that were broken around the province."
Most of New Brunswick has power back, last few customers to be restored by evening
About 71,000 N.B. Power customers were without power at storm's peak, utility says
Most New Brunswickers had their power restored by mid-Tuesday afternoon following an outage beginning on Dec. 23 that peaked at around 70,000 customers.
Only around 30 customers are still without power. But they are expected to have their power back by Tuesday evening.
Marc Belliveau, an N.B. Power spokesperson, said on Tuesday morning that the remaining customers without power would be "the very last outages that we would be dealing with."
He said many of the outages are one or two houses, but they still require the same restoration time as an outage affecting 50 houses.
"We're talking about clearing branches, clearing trees, stringing wires back up if they're down or changing insulators that might have been broken," he said. "And in some cases, there's broken poles."
The majority of the remaining outages are in Carleton, according to the outage map.
The start of the outage came with a pre-Christmas storm that brought heavy rain, high winds and snow to different parts of the province.
Belliveau said there were 500 employees working to get power restored at the outage's peak, but there might be fewer today because of fewer outages.
Outage numbers have been fluctuating throughout the day across the province. Belliveau said that's because workers often need to take some customers offline in order to do repairs.
Belliveau said this outage event is one of the most significant in the last few decades for New Brunswick because storms will normally hit one region, but this one hit the whole province.
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