NB Power crews are struggling to restore power throughout the province as nearly 93,000 people are still without electricity, two days after post-tropical storm Arthur hit the region.
The hardest-hit area is still Fredericton, where 45,381 customers are without power, according to NB Power’s website at 5:51 a.m.
There are still widespread outages across the province.
In western New Brunswick, there are 12,802 customers still in the dark in Woodstock.
In southern New Brunswick, NB Power reports there are 11,250 customers without power in St. Stephen and 9,553 in Rothesay.
Meanwhile, in eastern New Brunswick, there are 6,682 people without power in Miramichi.
The restoration of power is taking longer than NB Power predicted on Sunday.
Gaëtan Thomas, the president and chief executive officer of NB Power, told on Sunday that half of the 135,000 of customers without electricity "should have power back by midnight tonight. The majority of our customers by noon” on Monday."
He said the remainder, particularly customers in rural areas, would be without power until Wednesday or Thursday.
Post-tropical storm Arthur is responsible for the largest blackout in New Brunswick’s history, according to NB Power.
NB Power estimated it had more than 155 crews working on Sunday. Back-up crews were in the province from Maine and Quebec.
The storm brought strong winds and heavy rain. The strongest winds were recorded in Fredericton, where gusts hit 100 km/h.
All of New Brunswick received heavy rainfall. St. Stephen, in the southwestern part of the province, received 143 millimetres of rain on Saturday — the highest amount of rain from the storm recorded in the Maritimes.
Other communities that had significant highest rainfall amounts on Saturday include:
- Noonan, N.B., 140 mm.
- Millville, N.B.: 127 mm.
- Miramichi, N.B.: 122 mm.
Many municipalities are trying to help citizens, who have been without power for several days.
Fredericton will be opening the Grant-Harvey Centre and Willie O’Ree Place on Monday and they will be used as charging stations. Shower facilities will also be available at the arenas.