Wait for power restoration will reach full week for some P.E.I. residents

Some P.E.I. residents have endured a seventh day without power.

There were more crews on P.E.I. Saturday to help Maritime Electric with power outages a week after post-tropical storm Dorian hit the Island.

Maritime Electric have made headway, restoring power for many pockets. But, according to the outage map on the utility's website, 1,045 customers remained without power Saturday evening.

There is one pocket with over 100 customers without power in Long River.

Spokesperson Kim Griffin said six crews arrived from Newfoundland Power Saturday morning to help out and 75 crews headed out at 7 a.m. to aid power restoration efforts.

"We still have some pockets of customers that we're focusing on, both primarily in east and western P.E.I. Central is making some progress and has some smaller outages," she said.

Kensington cleanup continues

Katelyn Woodside, who lives in Kensington, lost her power when the storm hit. It hasn't been restored.

"It's been a long week," she said. "I can't wait for it to come back. But … everybody's doing as much as they can. So you just gotta be patient."

Woodside said she charges her devices at work and has visited her parents' house for some meals. When she was at her house, she passed the time by reading.

Nancy Wall, who also lives in Kensington, had several trees fall on her property, including one that landed on her house.  She said her power came back on Thursday, but is still waiting for internet and cable to be restored.  

Wall said when she had no power, she used a generator lent to her by her neighbour. She said she's grateful.

"We've had people coming in and help us clean up, and lending us generators and trucks and trailers and their time. It's been great. People have been great."

She said she isn't surprised by the generosity though. "This community always has been great for helping people when we need it."

Rick Strang of Long River said he lost power and water for five days. 

He said he stocked up on water beforehand. He said he wasn't frustrated or upset by the outages, but instead counts himself as lucky. 

"I was feeling pretty grateful actually that there wasn't more damage done," he said. "It could have been a lot worse for me and I had a lot of concern for people who were a lot worse off. Not everybody had generators. Not everybody had the minimal damage like I did."

Individual outages

Griffin expects individual outages won't be restored until Sunday evening.

"It is slow going," Griffin said.

She said she knows it is a difficult time for the people still waiting.

"We do feel very bad about this and our crews are continuing to try and work to get the power back on as soon as possible."

Crews were set to work through Saturday night.

"Our crews are still forecasting they should be able to get all their individual outages by Sunday night," she said.

However, Griffin said some customers may require an electrician and that could take a little longer for those homes.

Scam circulating

Griffin cautions Islanders about a phone and text scam that is circulating.

She said customers are being contacted by someone claiming to be Maritime Electric and threatening to disconnect if they don't deliver immediate payment.

Griffin said if people are contacted to let Maritime Electric and the RCMP know about it.

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