More than 13,000 customers still without power in Nova Scotia after storm

HALIFAX – More than 13,000 Nova Scotia homes and businesses were still without power Tuesday afternoon, more than 24 hours after the first major snowstorm of the season. 

The province’s private utility says that number is down from the 140,000 customers that lost power after 20 centimetres of snow fell Sunday evening into Monday morning. 

“The weight of the heavy, wet snow across the province (brought) down trees and branches onto power lines and power equipment, causing outages,” a Nova Scotia Power official said in an email. 

As of Tuesday afternoon, most of the outages were clustered along the south shore in the Bridgewater, Shelburne and Liverpool areas. 

“We have more than 300 people in the western region working to restore power – that includes power line technicians and vegetation crews,” Nova Scotia Power said. 

Nova Scotia Power has said icy road conditions had slowed the work of their technicians.

The utility said a handful of customers lost power when a snow plow struck a power pole Tuesday morning in Lower Sackville, taking down power lines.

It estimated that most customers should be back on the grid by Tuesday evening.