Thousands of Nova Scotians still without power after winter storm

Thousands of Nova Scotians are still without power the day after a nor'easter swept through the province.

Around 6,400 customers were still without power at 10:30 a.m. AT, most of which had lost electricity on Saturday. About 100 people have been without power since Friday, said Lia MacDonald.

MacDonald, vice-president of transmission, distribution, and delivery with Nova Scotia Power, said 500 crew members were in the field working on restoration. More than 300 are focused on the South Shore.

The largest pockets of power outages remain in the Chester, Bridgewater and Liverpool areas, MacDonald said.

"The conditions yesterday were extremely complicated and challenging … the road conditions were particularly the issue yesterday with the whiteout conditions," MacDonald said Sunday morning.

She said Nova Scotia Power has been working with the province to address plowing priorities to allow crews to get into those "harder to reach areas" so they could get up in the buckets to restore electricity.

The challenge for Sunday remains getting into smaller roads blocked by snow, MacDonald said, and then to clear fallen trees to make it safe to restore lines.

MacDonald said the goal to have everything restored by Sunday evening.

A municipal warming centre has been set up at the Chester United Baptist Church at 84 King St. in Chester, opening at 9 a.m. Sunday. It was also open until midnight on Saturday, for those without power.

In western Cape Breton, Environment Canada said Inverness and Victoria counties remain under a snow squall warning on Sunday. Up to another 15 centimetres of snow was expected, with winds gusting up to 70 km/h.

Sunday is expected to remain cold on mainland N.S., according to Environment Canada, with northwest wind gusting to 50 km/h before tapering off in the afternoon. 

There will be a high temperature of –7 C, but the wind chill will make it feel like –29 C Sunday morning and –13 C in the afternoon. There is a risk of frostbite in some areas, including Halifax and Lunenburg County.

The storm caused hazardous conditions on many roads in the province Saturday. Public works closed the Canso Causeway and Cobequid Pass for some time but they are now open.

There were a handful of cancellations and delays at the Halifax airport Sunday morning, but the schedule looked to be back on track starting around 9 a.m. Many flights were cancelled due to the storm Saturday.