Military help wasn't needed after Dorian, says Maritime Electric

Having help from the military on P.E.I. in the wake of post-tropical storm Dorian would not have restored electricity faster, says Maritime Electric.

Almost all of Maritime Electric's customers, close to 65,000, lost electricity in the storm. Some had to wait eight days to get it back.

Company spokesperson Kim Griffin said the number one question people are asking the utility after Dorian is would having the military help with the cleanup, have returned power to some people sooner. She said the answer to that is probably not.

"Sometimes you can actually have too many people," said Griffin.

"I don't mean that disrespectfully, I mean it from safely managing people. I think that if we needed help, we would have asked and said we think this would make a big difference. So I don't think that would have made a difference for us because of the nature of our work."

The company had a record number of workers on the job, she said, with 80 crews out and help from provincial transportation and forestry workers.

Maritime Electric is still calculating the cost of the cleanup, and that should be available in a week to 10 days, she said.

Legislature committee questions delayed

Premier Dennis King and Public Safety Minister Bloyce Thompson are prepared to take questions from a legislature committee about the province's response to the storm.

They had initially been scheduled to appear this week, but that has been delayed.

The provincial Emergency Measures Organization is still co-ordinating recovery efforts. King and Thompson want to wait until that work is done before appearing before the committee.

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