Acadian Peninsula faces new power outages, braces for another storm

Some people in northeast New Brunswick are dealing with power outages again and bracing for another storm expected to hit the province on Wednesday.

Fifty-eight homes and businesses had no electricity as of 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, down from about 225 earlier in the day.

All but two of them are on the Acadian Peninsula, where thousands of NB Power customers went days without power following the ice storm that hit nearly two weeks ago.

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NB Power spokeswoman Marie Andrée Bolduc said the latest outages are new ones, caused by lingering ice and high winds in the area.

Crews were responding to them, she said.

Storm expected

NB Power is also monitoring an incoming weather system forecast by Environment Canada, president and CEO Gaëtan Thomas said in a statement.

The storm is not expected to bring significant amounts of snow or freezing rain, but trees already weakened by the previous ice storm could make contact with lines, which can cause power outages, the utility advised.

Environment Canada issued a special weather statement Monday afternoon. 

"While we are not expecting a storm of the same magnitude as the last one," said Thomas. "We are watching it carefully and making sure we are prepared by resting our crews and encouraging customers to be prepared.

"We want to reassure customers that we are watching this storm closely to ensure we can be ready to respond quickly and safely when and if our infrastructure is impacted."

Final check

About 70 troops left the area for 5th Canadian Division Support Base Gagetown on Sunday night, when NB Power had managed to get the number of power outages down to zero, as of 6:30 p.m.

Maj. Yoann Leclerc-Desjardins said 150 troops remain on the ground and will do a final check to be sure they are no longer needed.

At the peak of the outages from the Jan. 25 storm, 133,000 homes and businesses across the province simultaneously had no electricity. In total, more than 200,000 were affected by the storm and its aftermath.

"What we are hoping is people to get a normal life again. Like school will start tomorrow, and today we'll have food bank deliveries, getting some food to the people and … getting back to the routine."