Crews working to restore power after multiple outages
Snowfall and blowing snow warnings remain for eastern Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia Power crews are working to get power back to several hundred customers on the South Shore, but some will have to wait until 11 a.m. Friday morning for restoration.
In total, 324 customers were without power as of 5 p.m. Thursday. More than 200 of those customers will have power restored by 6 p.m., while several dozen others should have power by 11 p.m. Thursday.
Twenty customers who lost power late Thursday will have to wait until Friday morning for restoration, according to Nova Scotia Power. Those customers are all being notified of the situation by phone.
At the height of the outages, about 1,600 customers were without power in the Bridgewater, Mahone Bay, Greenfield and Liverpool areas Thursday morning.
Outage in Windsor area
At the same time, crews are trying to restore power to approximately 3,200 customers in the area between Windsor and Noel. That outage was caused by a broken insulator on a transmission line in Upper Burlington.
The estimated time for restoration in that outage is 6 p.m. Thursday. It's unclear whether that outage was related to the passing storm.
Eastern mainland Nova Scotia and Cape Breton were under a snow and blowing snow warning for a second day, prompting some schools to cancel classes.
The Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board, Chignecto-Central Regional School Board in Pictou County only and the Strait Regional School Board cancelled classes for all students and employees. Several schools in the north-east region under Conseil scolaire acadien provincial also closed for the day.
A slow moving low pressure system that moved over the area Wednesday has stalled and is expected to bring 20 to 30 centimetres of snow to north eastern parts of the province by Friday morning. Pictou, Guysborough, Antigonish, Richmond, Victoria, Inverness and Cape Breton counties will all get that snow.
Most mainland areas will receive 25 centimetres while some areas of Cape Breton could get as much as 40 centimetres of snow.
Strong northerly winds means blowing snow and reduced visibility. Environment Canada warns against travel in eastern areas of the province today.
The national weather forecaster issues such advisories when winds are expected to create blowing snow that reduces visibility to 800 metres or less for at least three hours.
Marine Atlantic delayed its morning sailings and evening sailings Thursday until 11:45 a.m. on Friday, weather permitting.