Snow storm cuts power, closes schools

Schools in several districts across New Brunswick were closed Monday because of an overnight snowfall and slippery road conditions.

That includes schools in District 14, the Woodstock area, District 17, in the Oromocto area, and many schools in District 18, in the Fredericton area.

The francophone schools in Fredericton were also closed.

School District 18 shut down all schools except for Upper Miramichi Elementary, Doaktown Elementary and Central NB Academy because of bad weather and road conditions.

School District 10 closed schools in the St. Stephen area. As well, NBCC-St. Andrews cancelled Monday classes.

Environment Canada is forecasting snowfall amounts of up to 10 centimetres in the western part of the province.

Strong winds gusting up to 90 kilometres per hour led to a total closure of the Confederation Bridge between New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island late Monday morning. It reopened early Monday afternoon, with restrictions still in place for high-sided vehicles.

As of 1:13 p.m. NB Power was reporting 10,962 outages across the province.

While southwestern New Brunswick felt the brunt of the power outages on Monday morning, the bulk of the affected customers has moved to the eastern part of the province.

There are 2,669 customers without power in Bouctouche, followed by 1,977 people in Moncton and 1,474 in Miramichi and 1,132 in Bathurst.

As well, there are 1,388 people without electricity in St. Stephen and 1,027 without power in Sussex.

There are smaller outages being reported in Campbellton/Dalhousie, Fredericton, Sackville, Shediac, Tracadie-Sheila and Woodstock.