Nova Scotia Power says outages might not be restored until Friday

Nova Scotia Power is backing away from its previous statement that power would be restored by 11:30 p.m. Thursday.

As of 10:35p.m.,there were 66Nova Scotia Power customers affected by 24outages.

This isn't the first time the company has changed its restoration timeline. It had previously estimated power would be restored by noon Wednesday.

"We have a couple of situations that are very complex in remote locations that may push us into tomorrow morning," said Karen Hutt, the president and CEO of Nova Scotia Power.

She said the company has notified the customers who likely won't see power until tomorrow morning.

The company's priority has been to fix the larger outages and now it's getting to the smaller ones, which have suffered more damage than anticipated.

Evan Dahl of Back Centre, N.S., which is just outside Lunenburg, said he's worried about frozen pipes in his home. His home is so cold that an icicle has formed from the water tap and his cat's water bowl started to freezesecondsafterhe added water to it.

"It's pretty cold when that's happening," he said.

The cold temperatures, combined with strong westerly winds, meanit's going to feel colder than 20 C across most of Nova Scotia on Thursday, with wind chill valuesdropping down into the 30 range.

The cold weather is expected to stick around through the weekend.

'Scared me to death'

Margaret Stewart ofHebbsCross on Nova Scotia's South Shore had her power restored Thursdayand isn't happy with how Nova Scotia Power responded to the situation. On Christmas Day, she lost power at around 4:30 p.m., andat 7:30 p.m.she heard a huge bang.

"The tree and the wires, everything, was laying over our vehicles in the yard and it scared me to death," she said.

Stewart immediately phoned Nova Scotia Power to notify the company.

She said that electricity in the area was later fixed, but no one told her about it.

"The power went on, the wires went liveand we didn't know it because I trusted NS Power," she said, noting that her brother had touched the lines at one point because he didn't think electricity was running through them.

Hutt said she hopes that experience is an exception. She said when people are concerned about their personal safety, they should call 911 as those calls are immediately flagged to Nova Scotia Power and crews are dispatched immediately.

Lacking fresh water

Tim Brooks lives on adirt road that has four homes on it inLilydaleon NovaScotia'sSouthShore. He hasn't had power since Christmas Day at 4 p.m.

Brooks said the lack of water is the biggest inconvenience. He's been using a bucket to get water from a nearby creek, but with the frigid temperatures, the creek has been turning into ice and he's worried it will soon freeze over.

With two kids and a spouse, Brooks saidhis family needs water, especially for the toilets.

• What you need to know to stay safe and warm

At the height of the outages, there were about 158,000 customers affected after a Christmas Day storm brought strong winds tothe province.

The highest concentration of outages is along the South Shore. Winds across Nova Scotia reached 110 km/h during the storm.

Nova Scotia Powersaid it has about 450 people helping to restore service and 250 other workers on duty, including customer service staff.

Power crews from across the Maritimes have come to Nova Scotia to help, the company said, andinclude power-line technicians, tree trimmers and damage assessors.

Phone service affected

In addition to power outages, there were also about 150 Bell Aliantcustomers without phone service following the storm. Crews were out with generators on Wednesday afternoon to reconnectthose customers.

About100 Eastlinkcustomers are still cut off from the internet and other services. Company spokesperson Jill Laingsaid most of the customers are in areas where there were power outages andtechnicians are working on restoring service.

Paul Mason, executive director of the province's Emergency Management Office,cautioned residents to be careful using alternative sources of heat and power such as generators, kerosene and wood stoves, due to the danger posed bycarbon monoxide.

Warming centres

The following four Nova Scotia Power payment depots are being used as warming centres:

• 261 Ohio Rd. in Shelburne.
• 96 Valley Rd. in Chester.
• 3 Calkin Dr. in Kentville.
• 26 Bridge Ave. in Stellarton.

The centres opened at 8 a.m. on Thursday.

Flights and ferries

Many flights travelling to or from Halifax Stanfield International Airport on Thursday are delayed, plus there are some cancellations.

Marine Atlantic cancelled its Thursday morning crossings between Port aux Basques, N.L., and North Sydney, N.S. The crossings are rescheduled for Thursday evening, but Marine Atlantic warns that those too could be cancelled.