High winds make power restoration challenging in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia Power says

High winds are making power restoration difficult in Cape Breton as the Christmas weekend approaches.

There were around 4,900 Nova Scotia Power customers without electricity as of 2:22 p.m. on Friday. Many of the outages are in the Cape Breton area.

"Those high winds [on Thursday] lasted almost 24 hours," Matt Drover, Nova Scotia Power's storm lead.

"At the Sydney airport, there were winds above 80 [km/h] at 10 a.m. [Thursday]  and they continued through 10 a.m. this morning, so 24 hours of those high winds and that mess of wintry weather brought many trees down on to our power lines causing outages to customers."

Drover said he expected the large outages to be restored by Friday evening. He said more than 200 Nova Scotia Power workers are involved in the restoration effort.

"We know this is a very challenging time of the year being a few days before Christmas for people to be losing power," Drover said.

Delivery disruptions

Canada Post issued service delivery alerts for Antigonish, Cape Breton and central Nova Scotia because of the weather.

In a news release on Friday, it said it was suspending delivery service for the day in Antigonish and Cape Breton.

It said workers would attempt to make deliveries in central Nova Scotia, but delays were possible.

"We know how much the holiday season matters to online shoppers and Canadian businesses – and we were ready again this year to deliver more for them at this special time," Canada Post said in a news release. 

"If we do find, though, in certain areas across the country, that we do need to catch up and make some deliveries, customers may see our delivery agents on the street on the weekend."