New Brunswick weather: Storm closes schools, causes power outages
Still 5,905 customers without power, most of them in Fredericton
An overnight snowstorm closed some schools in eastern New Brunswick, forced bus delays in other parts of the province and left thousands without power on Friday.
- CBC Storm Centre: The latest storm-related closures and cancellations
Roughly 30,000 NB Power customers were without electricity at the peak of the outages on Friday.
On Friday at 9:30 p.m., the number of customers without power had dropped to 5,905.
The majority of those outages were in the Fredericton area, where 4,706 people were without electricity.
Meghan Gerrish, a spokesperson for NB Power, said they expect around 1000 customers will remain without power overnight.
She said NB Power is calling all of those customers to let them know.
The Anglophone East School District closed all of its schools because of the poor conditions.
The Francophone South district closed schools in Moncton, Dieppe, Shediac, Bouctouche and Oromocto. The district's buses in Fredericton were delayed two hours.
Nine schools in the Fredericton-Oromocto area closed for the day at 10:30 because power has not been restored.
Slippery driving conditions
The storm also caused slippery driving conditions on city streets and on provincial highways.
The RCMP responded to 48 accidents between 5 p.m. on Thursday and 3 a.m. on Friday.
RCMP Const. Jullie Rogers-Marsh called it a "busy night."
The Fredericton Police, meanwhile, reported about a dozen minor accidents.
The MacKay Highway in the Kennebecasis Valley was described as a sheet of ice.
The highway was backed up in both directions because of incidents of cars off the road.
Mike Walker, the manager of streets and roads in Fredericton, said streets in the capital had been plowed, but was still advising people to drive carefully.
On mobile? Check out the latest closure details