End of January Wind & Rainstorm News Stories

Power remains out for 9,000 after wind storm

NB Power is hiring 25 private crews to help restore electricity

CBC News

Posted: Feb 1, 2013 6:20 AM AT

Last Updated: Feb 1, 2013 7:51 PM AT

Just over 9,000 New Brunswickers were still without power at 6:30 Friday evening because of a severe wind storm that pounded much of southern New Brunswick on Thursday afternoon.
Meghan Gerrish, spokesperson for NB Power, said the utility expects the restoration effort to continue overnight Friday and into the weekend.
"We appreciate our customers' patience as we work to restore power," she said.
NB Power was reporting 578 different outages that continued to leave 17,193 customers without power around 11 a.m. Friday morning. There were more than 38,000 NB Power customers affected by power outages on Thursday evening because of the fierce wind storm.
Saint John had a peak wind gust of 111 kilometres per hour, according to CBC meteorologist Kalin Mitchell.
Thousands of people remained in the dark across southern New Brunswick. As of 6:30 p.m. Friday there were 3,732 people without power in Rothesay, 3,969 in Sussex , 1,103 in Moncton, 462 people in Fredericton and 314 in Woodstock.
A power shortage caused École Arc-en-ciel in Oromocto to close on Friday.
As well, Brown's Flat School, Lakefield Elementary School and Rothesay Elementary School were all closed because of power outages.
Garden Creek Elementary School in Fredericton closed at 9 a.m. because there was no power in the building.

Gerrish said 25 private crews were called to help NB Power's own crews to restore electricity on Friday. The utility is also hoping to get assistance from Nova Scotia and Quebec.

Kim Griffin, a spokesperson for Maritime Electric, said crews from Prince Edward Island are being sent to New Brunswick to help restore power.
"We got the call at midnight last night and they asked us to send as many crews as we possibly send to help them," Griffin said.
"So we felt comfortable that we had enough crews on the island if anything happens today or into the weekend, and we have the four crews going any minute."
The utility is also bringing in outside tree trimming crews to help the clean-up process.
She said NB Power expects it will take until sometime this weekend before service is completely restored across the province.
The wind storm caused at least one flight that was supposed to land in Saint John to be diverted to Moncton on Thursday.
There were other reports from across the province of hydro poles being knocked down.
As well, strong winds tore the roof off a building on the Shediac Road in Moncton. In Saint John, part of the roof of the Latour Terrace apartment building in the city's uptown was ripped off by the winds and landed on a car at the Vito's restaurant parking lot next door.
Environment Canada is no longer reporting any weather warnings in New Brunswick. But the forecast is calling for winds gusting up to 70 km/h in parts of the province.

Wind swings park gate, impales car in Halifax

80-year-old male driver suffers minor injuries

CBC News

Posted: Jan 31, 2013 6:09 PM AT

Last Updated: Jan 31, 2013 8:34 PM AT

An 80-year-old male driver is safe after a Point Pleasant Park gate swung closed in high winds and impaled his car.
Halifax Regional Police said the accident happened at approximately 4 p.m. on Thursday.
The gate smashed into the windshield of the Dodge Charger and one end went through the window on the driver's side.
The driver suffered minor injuries, said police.

Halifax building collapse due to wind, not structure

Construction site blew down off Herring Cove Road

CBC News

Posted: Feb 1, 2013 4:57 PM AT

Last Updated: Feb 1, 2013 7:01 PM AT

Nova Scotia's Department of Labour has finished its investigation into a building that collapsed off Herring Cove Road and concluded the destruction was caused by extreme winds and not structural weakness.
The structure on Layton Road fell down early Thursday afternoon and damaged an adjacent house and car when it collapsed in winds gusting more than 90 kilometres an hour.
It was to become a three-storey office space for Over the Edge Canada, a company made up of event planning professionals and industrial rope experts who plan rappelling excursions for charity.
"That's always the first place everyone goes to — how does it blow down?" said Paul Griffith, the president and CEO of Over the Edge.
"What I do know is that the architecture plans and the engineer specs and the building permits and all that kind of stuff were fully up to speed and code."
Department of Labour investigators finished their work on the site on Friday and concluded the building had proper permits and passed all relevant city inspections.
The crew left the construction site shortly before the collapse on Thursday, after bracing the building because it was too windy to work.
No one was injured, but a car and adjacent building were damaged in the collapse.
"Every month we're not into our new spot, we lose a significant amount of money because we're holding lease holds and the mortgage on this property," said Griffith.
Griffith said the building was insured and he's speaking with all the insurance companies involved. He hopes to have the details worked out for damage to his property and neighbours' properties within a week.
The plan is to rebuild in the same location.