Cleaning up after Dorian's damage
Dorian brought strong winds and heavy rain to the region this past Saturday and left its mark on southwestern Nova Scotia, downing trees and power lines, and leaving thousands without power amid other damage.
And after Dorian was gone, the storm’s impact remained for days with cleanups and repairs while thousands still waited for restoration of power.
As of Saturday evening, while Dorian continued to pummel the province, over 400,000 of Nova Scotia Power’s 500,000or-so customers were without power. The hurricane was a post-tropical storm when it made landfall the evening of Sept. 7, says Saltwire meteorologist Cindy Day.
In the tri-counties, Dorian brought strong, sustained winds throughout the day and strong gusts above 100 km/h. In Yarmouth a gust of 129 km/h was recorded at the airport.
The majority of damage came in the form of downed trees and powerlines and there was evidence of this throughout Yarmouth, Shelburne and Digby counties.
Forest Street in Yarmouth – beloved for its canopy of trees – lost several large trees, much to the heartbreak of many. A huge tree in front of the Lakelawn Motel in Yarmouth tore up part of the sidewalk when it was blown over, crashing onto brick entrance columns and tangling itself up in power lines.
Downtown Shelburne saw many downed trees, along with downed power poles and powerlines. King Street at Mowatt remained barricaded on Monday, this newspaper’s press day, as there were light poles and lines across the roadway. The town’s Rail Trail had not yet been assessed and the town was recommending caution to anyone looking to use it.
“Cleanup efforts will continue throughout the week and we are awaiting confirmation on if and how branches and other tree debris will be collected,” the town of Shelburne stated on its Facebook page. “We will update once this has been determined.”
The Town of Yarmouth said it would be collecting branches and other tree debris of certain sizes and was posting information on its Facebook page about the collection.
In Barrington some roads were still blocked by fallen trees on Monday.
And another issue was causing problem for residents. Many gas stations in the tri-counties (along with other parts of the province) had run out of fuel as they were awaiting new fuel deliveries. This wasn’t just an issue for people looking to gas up their vehicles, but also to gather gas for generators during the power outages. In Weymouth on Monday morning a long lineup of vehicles could be seen as people waited to access one of the four pumps at the Irving.
All public schools were closed on Monday and Tuesday as the cleanup from Dorian continued and power continued to be restored. School officials also needed time to assess buildings to ensure there was no damage before students and staff returned.
One school in the region that did see damage was Evelyn Richardson Memorial Elementary School in Shag Harbour, where a section of roof over the gymnasium and kitchen was damaged. Staff and students were being told on Monday that when power was restored they would be returning to class at the school.
“We will not have to relocate,” wrote principal Lee GorehamSmith in a Facebook post. “We won’t have cafeteria services obviously until the roof over the gym and kitchen is repaired. We will be asking students to bring their lunches from home until further notice. Phys-ed classes will need to be outside, weather permitting. If weather doesn’t co-operate, we will ask Mr. Sweeney to be creative and use the meeting room.”
In Wedgeport, Yarmouth County, a building at Wedgeport Boat Ltd. was destroyed by the winds. It was a crumpled mess as it was shifted off of its foundation.
One of the greatest tasks in the aftermath of Dorian was getting Nova Scotians back onto the power grid. Some municipal units in the region saw comfort centres set up where residents could get a warm meal and a place to charge up mobile and computer devices.
At 10:10 p.m. on Saturday this was a sampling of the number of customers without power in the region: Clare: 3,881; Barrington: 3,948; Digby: 8,706; Shelburne 5,693 and Yarmouth 11,256.
In an update around 5 p.m. on Monday, Nova Scotia Power said teams continued to assess damage in communities throughout the province.
“Over the past day-and-ahalf our teams have been in towns, villages and remote areas across Nova Scotia, patrolling our 32,000 kilometres of power lines and assessing the There was a long lineup of vehicles waiting to get gas in Weymouth on Monday morning. A triple felling on Forest Street. A gigantic tree downed by the storm in front of Lakelawn Motel in Yarmouth, pulling down and tangling powerlines in the process.
damage Dorian caused. Damage includes an estimated 3,700 trees on lines and 300 broken or leaning poles,” said Karen Hutt, president & CEO, Nova Scotia Power. “This information is
giving us better detail around the nature of the repairs that need to be made and the challenges ahead, as well as helping us continue to plan the work of our power line and forestry crews.”
Work was being prioritized to safely restore service to critical customers and infrastructure, followed by the greatest number of customers as quickly as Nova Scotia Power could.
Damage assessors had also identified approximately 4,500 outages across Nova Scotia that were single-customer outages, meaning one repair will restore electricity to one customer. In most regions of Nova Scotia, restoration of those types of outages was not expected until Thursday.
“We know this is frustrating and customers want their power back as soon as possible. That’s what we want, too, and it’s what we’re working toward in a planned and organized fashion,” Hutt said.
After the storm additional power line crews continued to arrive in Nova Scotia to assist in the recovery. By Monday, Nova Scotia Power had restored service to more than half of the 400,000 customers who lost power due to Dorian. By 5 p.m. on Monday the number of customers without power sat at 148,386.
“All the teams responding to the destruction Dorian has caused – our crews, our contractors, the Emergency Management Office, the Canadian Armed Forces, the three levels of government and first responders – we’re all united in working to return our province to a state of normalcy as soon as we can.” Hutt said.