Dorian cleanup continues in N.S.
HALIFAX— Public schools across Nova Scotia will remain closed Tuesday as cleanup continues following the punch packed by former hurricane Dorian over the weekend.
“I would emphasize for people to be patient as we move through this process ... It’s a very significant event and it will take a few days to get things fully returned back to normalcy,” Paul Mason, executive director of the province’s Emergency Management Office (EMO), said in an interview.
“There is a lot of heavy equipment on the roads, there’s a lot of downed or damaged trees and wires, so we want people just to be careful and exercise caution.”
The former hurricane barrelled into the Atlantic region on Saturday as a post-tropical storm, with winds reaching between 120 and 150 kilometres an hour and rain in the 100- to 200-millimetre range, according to the Canadian Hurricane Centre.
At the storm’s peak, there were 400,000 customers without power in Nova Scotia. By late Monday afternoon, that number had gone down to about 147,000. Estimated restoration times varied on the Nova Scotia Power (NSP) outage map, from 11 p.m. Monday to 11 p.m. Thursday.
Military members were called to the province on Sunday to help with cleanup efforts. The troops will be clearing away debris and making sure routes to hospitals and other major centres are clear to allow NSP to get in and restore power. “The impacts really are straight across the province,” Mason said. “Dorian made landfall in the general Halifax area, but the very strong winds just due to the size of the storm and the large amounts of rain really had significant impact all the way from Yarmouth to Sydney.”
Mason said they’re aware of “fairly significant impact to cell service” in parts of the province, adding that EMO is ensuring providers are communicating with Nova Scotia Power.
“That’s so that as the power restoration moves forward, any of those issues that may have impacted the cellular network can also be addressed simultaneously,” he said.
Mason said the most positive piece of news in Dorian’s aftermath is the fact there was no loss of life or serious injury.
When it comes to clean up efforts, Halifax spokesperson Brendan Elliott was urging people to keep clear and let crews do their jobs.