Some New Brunswickers remained in the dark on Christmas morning after heavy rain and strong winds on Friday night knocked more than 70,000 customers off the grid.
According to NB Power, its online dashboard reported more than 8,700 affected customers as of 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, down from more than the 32,000 affected on Saturday night.
Reported outages were scattered across the province, but the remaining outages are in western areas of New Brunswick, including Victoria/Madawaska County and Carleton County.
The utility said Friday it had more than 500 crews ready to respond to potential outages. NB Power’s dashboard shows some customers may have to wait until Dec. 29 for the lights to come back.
“As damage assessments throughout the province continue, some areas may be inaccessible to crews due to dangerous conditions,” reads a post on NB Power’s Twitter account.
“The estimated time of restorations is pending these assessments. We will continue to provide updates about this event as more information is received.”
NB Power says if people see downed power lines, they should stay at least 10 meters away and immediately report it online or by phone at 1-800-663-6272.
Canadians across the country bore the brunt of bad weather over the last couple of days, with heavy snow and freezing rain in areas like Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia.
According to Environment Canada, other western provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan faced extremely cold temperatures.
The messy forecasts caused an inconvenience to many Canadians trying to go home for the holidays. Airlines like WestJet and Air Canada delayed and even cancelled flights from coast to coast.
Cancellations left many travellers stranded at airports in Vancouver and Toronto.
While the bad weather is over for most areas of New Brunswick, some regions like Saint John and Moncton could still see some flurries of up to 15 centimetres.