Wild weather knocks out power, disrupts traffic on bridge
Dramatic weather had a grip on P. E. I. Thursday as wind knocked out power, hail fell, rainbows appeared and the sun came and went in matters of minutes.
At 2 p. m. Thursday, the Charlottetown airport had steady wind of 44 kilometres per hour but gusts to 73, an almost 30 km/ h differential.
Winds were just over 60 km/ h in North Cape into the evening, with gusts over 80 km/ h while East Point had peak gusts just over 70 km/ h around 6 p. m.
That caused problems with the power grid, producing scattered outages all over the Island, said Maritime Electric.
The two biggest power failures, affecting some 1,000 customers, hit the same area of Charlottetown at different times Thursday, reports the utility.
“The outages occurred
on the same Prince Street circuit, one at approximately 11: 15 a. m. to 11: 50,” said Kris Jackson, spokesperson for Maritime Electric. “This was caused by branches on power lines due to the high winds. This happened at the corner of Queen and Euston streets.”
The second larger outage occurred on the same circuit at approximately 4: 20 p. m. to 4: 50. Crews were on standby all night, said Jackson. Confederation Bridge imposed, then lifted, restrictions several times through the day. Northumberland Ferries cancelled its crossings at 1 p. m. from Wood Islands and the 2: 45 p. m. crossing from Caribou.