Winds huff and puff, take down power lines
Published Monday November 17th, 2008
No power | Storm affects people in city
NB Power crews worked late into the night Sunday to reconnect customers in the Fredericton region who were left without electricity after rain and heavy gusts of wind lashed the region.
The weather made driving treacherous, knocked out power to hundreds of homes in the region and left some city streets inundated with water.
"We've had tree limbs and even entire trees come down on top of power lines today," said Heather MacLean, manager of media relations for NB Power.
When crews had restored power in one spot, a problem would spring up elsewhere.
"Our crews have been working steadily through the day," she said.
At the height of the storm, more than 961 customers were without power in the Fredericton region. They were among more than 2,000 across the province who were left in the dark.
As of 7 p.m. Sunday, there were still 1,100 customers without power, 536 of them in the Fredericton area.
Heavy winds were to blame. Wind blew through the night Saturday, picking up speed in the morning. The top gust of 61 kilometres per hour was recorded at the Fredericton International Airport on Sunday between 8 - 9 a.m.
RCMP responded to calls for felled trees and downed power lines around the region Sunday morning.
In Burton, parts of Route 102 had to be closed because of fallen power lines.
In some parts of Fredericton, leaves clogged sewer grates, forcing motorists to drive through massive puddles.
The RCMP and Fredericton city police weren't reporting any major incidents as a result of the storm.
Things were notably quiet at the Fredericton Fire Department as well with firefighters responding to one call of a downed power line on Richibucto Road as a result of the storm.
"There was just the one call. That's the way we like it," said platoon Capt. Art Van Horne.
Sgt. Andrew MacDonald of the Fredericton Police Force said that while there were no notable incidents, the storm created more calls to 9-1-1.
Glitches known as "line faults" caused 9-1-1 calls with no callers to go into the city dispatch.
"We have to answer them anyway," said MacDonald.
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The lights were messed up due to the power outage as a result of the storm.