Storm Arthur: New Russell people fear NS Power has forgotten them

Utility tells Joanne Mason her power has been restored, but she's still without electricity

CBC News Posted: Jul 08, 2014 2:29 PM AT Last Updated: Jul 08, 2014 7:33 PM AT

 

People in New Russell, N.S., say they're worried they've been forgotten by Nova Scotia Power after post-tropical storm Arthur knocked their power out on the weekend.

Joanne Mason is one of the thousands of Maritimers still waiting to be reconnected to the grid. But Nova Scotia Power tells her she does indeed have electricity.

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She said things are a mess and power has not been reconnected in her area. She's called to report an outage.

“They said it was restored fully back at 11:30 last night. I tried to tell them them if you could just send somebody down here to see us, the mess that we’re in with the trees down, the lines down, there’s poles snapped off the tops. You have to drive over the wires to get out. It’s really a mess
down here,” she said.

Mason said about 65 of her neighbours are in the same situation and they haven't seen a linesman near their community. She said the community attempted to cut themselves out using power tools to clear fallen trees.

“We were trapped. There was no way to get out. There’s still trees, heavy trees, hanging across. You’ve got to drive under the power lines with the trees going across them. It’s not safe,” said Mason.

“I keep begging them, please send somebody down here just to have a look. Give us a little bit of comfort. We feel like we’re so isolated.”

Mason says she and her husband are on a fixed income. She said the $1,000 they've spent on a generator, combined with the cost of fuel, is really stretching them thin.

“We’re hurting,” she said. “Just hope and pray that somebody comes soon. Other than that, I don't know what we’re going to do.”

Shelley Flemming lives in the same neighbourhood. She said her power is off too, and that none of the homes in the area have power as of Tuesday afternoon.

'No one has been forgotten'

Neera Ritcey, spokeswoman for Nova Scotia Power, said crews are working hard to restore power across the province. "No one has been forgotten," she said.

"We are absolutely on this event [and] working until every customer has their power back on again,” she said.

Some "one-off" events could have damaged a customer's service mast specific to that building.

“If that is off, or if some damage is caused to it, there are times that, because of those individual issues, that they may not get their power back on. But their neighbours have been restored.”

She said customers in that situation should call the outage line (1-877-428-6004) and follow the instructions at the end of the message to report an outage.

If you get a call from NSP saying your power is on, and it's not, listen to the end and follow the instructions to let them know.