Residents of Fogo Island, Change Islands and other parts of central Newfoundland remain without power Tuesday evening following hurricane-force gusts early Tuesday morning, with some areas nearing 20 hours without heat and light.
As of 7:45 p.m. NT Tuesday, nearly 4,000 Newfoundland Power customers were without power due to severe weather conditions.
Power outages were also reported by Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, affecting about another 1,900 customers.
Roland Wells lives on Fogo Island. He’s been without power since 11:30 p.m. on Monday.
Winds in the area topped 150 km/h on Tuesday morning, he said.
“We just kind of hunkered down for the night and expected things to improve in the morning, but it hasn’t come on yet,” Wells told CBC News Tuesday evening.
Power for Fogo Island and Change Island communities was estimated to be restored at 5 p.m., but an update from Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro at 6:30 p.m. said crews ran into multiple issues. Power is now estimated to be restored at 10 p.m.
CBC News has asked Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro for more information.
“They’ve been doing a lot of work on the system, so we kind of expected it to be a little more resilient than what it has been,” Wells said.
Wells said this isn’t the first storm to knock out his power for a prolonged period this season, and being without power or a strong cellular connection presents a challenge.
“I have elderly parents and in-laws here. They’re both operating on cell phones, and if they got sick, there was no way for them to call an ambulance. No way for them to call us, even,” he said. “It’s really scary.”
On the isolated island community of St. Brendan’s, Mayor Bill Broderick estimated that around 20 homes will be without power Tuesday night.
Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro says around 60 customers are affected, as crews were unable to reach St. Brendan’s on Tuesday. An update on NL Hydro’s website says crews will be lined up at the ferry on Wednesday morning.
“When you live on an isolated island, there’s no question that that’s a concern,” Broderick said of the prolonged outage.
Similar challenges are being felt by Twillingate Mayor Deborah Bourden. She said inadequate cell service hampers the town on a good day, and it only gets worse when cellular bandwidth is increased by people trying to send messages in the dark.
“This is our third storm this winter so far, and it’s the second one where we’ve had a power loss of more than 10 or 14 hours,” Bourden told CBC Radio.
“So, this is a very big challenge for us as a community.”
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