Electricity Restored to Prince Edward Island After Four Days Without Power

by Rob Walker | February 1, 2008 at 11:50 am

415 views | 0 Recommendations | 0 comments

While some people I spoke to had friends whose power wouldn't be on for another two or three days, almost all residents of Prince Edward Island, Canada have power back after freezing rain and heavy ice brought down power lines across the province.

The military was ready to send in troops, but as the weather eased power workers were able to fix most of the major damage, at least temporarily.

A number of emergency shelters are still in operation days after the brutal storm.

There are a number of Islanders blogging about the storm and the damage it caused.

Well what a night! We have drifts 8 feet high in the drive way of finely packed snow. Now I understand why the Inuit can have so many words for snow - it has so many characteristics. This is like shoveling tight packed sand. Heart attack trap!
We will be here for days I suspect. To make things really fun - our septic tank decided to pack it in as well. We have moved to the barn. There is maybe 10 feet of snow where the septic is and the ground is frozen. We could be in the barn until spring!

Power is slowly being restored across Prince Edward Island five days after a fierce freezing rain storm forced over 22,000 Maritime Electric customers into the dark.
By late Thursday, well over half of those 22,000 customers had heat and lights restored.
But that meant about 8,400 customers had to bear another night in the dark as temperatures dipped to -13 C.

Premier Robert Ghiz was in western P.E.I. Thursday surveying some of the damage from this week's ice storm and ensuring emergency shelters have what they need.
The helicopter inspection revealed previously unknown damage.The helicopter inspection revealed previously unknown damage.(CBC)
Ghiz said he has spoken to federal Defence Minister Peter MacKay about having the army on standby. Soldiers from CFB Gagetown are prepared to help, but Ghiz said at this point it doesn't appear necessary.

And of course maritime hospitality abounded, even outside of all the volunteers working the emergency shelters.

When an ice storm knocked out power to much of Prince Edward Island earlier this week, Wayne Dickieson did what he could do to help his neighbours: he hooked up the generator at his farm and told his fellow Islanders to drop by.
“The farm supplied a lot of water for a lot of people,” Dickieson, who lives in North Rustico, said Friday while stopping for gas in Hunter River, northwest of Charlottetown.

“People showed up with their five-gallon white buckets. Water was the main thing — a lot of people have wood stoves and that can keep things warm enough, but they don’t have water to flush their toilets and stuff like that.”