107,000 N.B. Power customers without power, trees down, dozens of schools closed

CBC
·3 min read
A tree pictured on a Fredericton house Tuesday morning. Fierce winds took to the province Monday and overnight Tuesday, leaving over 100,000 customers without power. (Jeanne Armstrong/CBC - image credit)
A tree pictured on a Fredericton house Tuesday morning. Fierce winds took to the province Monday and overnight Tuesday, leaving over 100,000 customers without power. (Jeanne Armstrong/CBC - image credit)

More than 100,000 New Brunswickers woke up with no power on Tuesday morning after a rain and wind storm tore through the province.

Power was disrupted throughout the province, but N.B. Power's website shows 40,000 of the affected customers are in south-central areas, including Fredericton.

The power outages closed many schools across the province, including more than 50 in the Anglophone West School District.

Fredericton police have also closed several roads because of downed power lines:

  • Riverside Drive near civic address 562

  • Royal Road at the end of McLeod Hill Road farthest from town

  • Sunset Drive at Hartt Street

Outages are also affecting traffic lights in the region, including at the intersection of Maple Street and Ring Road in Fredericton.

Dominique Couture, a spokesperson for N.B. Power, said initial reports from field teams indicate many uprooted trees and trees on lines.

She said more outages are expected during the morning.

Couture said individuals are in every district assessing damage and making repairs where they can. Estimated restoration times are not listed for many outages at this time, she said, because the damage has yet to be assessed.

"Customers should be prepared for prolonged outages," she said in the email.

In western New Brunswick, a warming and charging centre is open at the Canterbury Community Centre at 22 Mill St.

According to Environment Canada, wind speeds at the Fredericton Airport on Monday were clocked at 100 km/h. In Saint John and St. Stephen, 93 km/h was the top speed recorded.

Brad Henderson, the mayor of Saint Andrews, called the storm a "significant weather event."

Post-tropical storm Lee felt mild compared to the storm Monday, he said.

Henderson said public works crews were back on the scene at 4:30 a.m. clearing debris from roads.

"I think there's going to be a common sound you hear, despite no power in the community, the common sound you're going to hear today is probably chainsaws," he said.

The Anglophone West School District had to keep more than 50 schools closed.

"Today's a day where you can expect just about anything to happen," said David McTimoney, the superintendent for the district.

He said it's possible some classes at the open schools would have to be combined if any teachers had difficulty getting to school because of road debris or other hazards.

With so many closures, Anglophone West chose to list the schools that are open. The open schools are:

  • St. Mary's Academy

  • John Caldwell School

  • Hartland Community School

  • Meduxnekeag Consolidated School

  • Upper Miramichi Elementary

  • Chipman Elementary

  • Chipman Forest Avenue

  • Minto Elementary, Middle and High Schools

  • Bliss Carman Middle

  • Forest Hill Elementary

  • George Street Middle

  • Connaught, Montgomery Street Elementaries

  • Devon Middle School

  • Burton Elementary and

  • Gagetown School

Anglophone South is listing 18 closures:

  • Fundy Shores School

  • Belleisle elementary and  high schools

  • Back Bay and Black's Harbour elementary schools

  • Campobello Island Consolidated School

  • Deer Island and Grand Manan community schools

  • Fundy Middle High

  • Lawrence Station Elementary

  • Milltown Elementary

  • Sir James Dunn Academy

  • St. George Elementary

  • St. Stephen Elementary, Middle and High Schools

  • Vincent Massey Elementary and

  • White Head Elementary

The following closures are for Anglophone East School District:

  • Caledonia Regional High

  • Hillsborough Elementary

  • Petitcodiac Regional School

  • Riverside Consolidated School

  • Shediac Cape School

  • Bessborough School

  • Hillcrest School

  • Maplehurst Middle School

The following five closures are for Anglophone North School District:

  • Eleanor W. Graham Middle

  • Rexton Elementary

  • Bonar Law Memorial High

  • North & South Esk Elementary

  • North & South Esk Regional High

Francophone South has five closures:

  • École Blanche-Bourgeois in Cocagne

  • École des Bâtisseurs and École Sainte-Anne in Fredericton

  • École Grande-Digue

  • École Abbey-Landry in Memramcook

Francophone Northwest has three:

  • École Marie-Gaétane in Kedgwick

  • École Mgr-Martin and Polyvalente A.-J.-Savoie in St-Quentin

Francophone Northeast only has one closure for L'école Marie-Esther de Shippagan.