Face of Nation : Hurricane Dorian moves from the U.S. and heads for Atlantic Canada, special measures are being put in place to help reduce its impact on the coastal provinces.
Dorian hit North Carolina’s Outer Banks on Friday after devastating the Bahamas, and is expected to spin into the Maritimes this weekend as either a Category 1 hurricane or a strong tropical storm, churning out sustained winds up to 130 km/h. It’s supposed to hit Nova Scotia Saturday afternoon and make its way through the province over the following 12 hours.
Karen Hutt, president and CEO of Nova Scotia Power, said the utility company has assembled a support team of “upwards of a thousand people.”
“That’s a combination of power line technicians — several of those would be external contractors that we’re bringing in from Nova Scotia, from New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario,” she said, adding that forestry crews and damage assessors will also be on hand.
Hutt said Nova Scotia Power will have crews in position to respond to outages as soon as the conditions are safe enough. She said Nova Scotians should expect to lose power. “I’d be hesitant to try to be specific … but there’s no question that once you start to see forecasts that call for winds that are higher than 100 km/h, you can anticipate outages,” she said.
While Nova Scotia is expecting some of the worst weather, the other Atlantic provinces aren’t off the hook. In New Brunswick, Fredericton could receive up to 50 millimetres of rain, and Saint John and Moncton could see close to 100 millimetres. Most areas will experience tropical storm-force winds.
Prince Edward Island is bracing for wind gusts as high as 120 km/h and over 100 millimetres of rain. The centre of the storm is forecast to pass off the eastern end of P.E.I. by early Sunday morning.
The province’s EMO said it’s been in touch with municipalities to make sure they’re prepared, and that it’s also been busy on social media trying to reach the general public.
WestJet, Air Canada and Porter have issued travel advisories for Saturday and Sunday. Those airlines are waiving some rebooking fees for flights in and out of several locations in Atlantic Canada this weekend.
