Hundreds of customers still offline; some won't see power until Tuesday

Hundreds of homes in eastern Newfoundland are still without power, and Newfoundland Power says the remaining repairs are likely to be slow going.

The utility company was still bringing customers back online Monday night, after fierce winds knocked down power lines on Saturday. 

Approximately 66,000 customers were brought back online since the hurricane-force winds struck eastern Newfoundland over the weekend.

Michele Coughlan, a spokesperson with Newfoundland Power, said the smaller nature of the remaining repairs means it could take some time to get service restored to the remaining homes.

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"What we're working on in that [St. John's area] is…what we refer to as these isolated or individual backyard-to-backyard type of repairs and restoration efforts," she said.

"Once you get the main power lines on, and the thousands of customers, this can be slow-going to be perfectly honest with you."

Coughlan said while large power line repairs can bring back thousands of customers at a time, the small repairs that are remaining will restore power to anywhere from 50 to 3 customers.

At 8:30 p.m. NT, about 400 customers were still waiting on restoration in St. John's, according to Newfoundland Power.

Earlier Monday afternoon, there were roughly 2,600 customers on the Burin Peninsula and in other areas on the Avalon who were also waiting. The utility company promised to work through the night to bring customers back online.

It expected to restore many areas Monday night, though repairs in the Trepassey and Salmonier Line areas are not expected to be completed until Tuesday.

Temporary generator en route

Coughlan said in the meantime, the company has a generator en route to Trepassey to bring as many customers back online as possible.

Eastern Health closed the Placentia Health Centre and Trepassey Nurse Abernathy Clinic due to outages.​

The description they give is worse than Igor.- Michele Coughlan

Coughlin added crews out doing the repairs said conditions were not ideal over the weekend.

"The description they give is, worse than Igor. And we're certainly seeing the same type of damage," she told CBC's St. John's Morning Show early Monday.

"In the St. John's area for example, we had somewhere in the neighbourhood of 15 cracked poles. We had downed power lines, trees in power lines, broken cross arms, debris in power lines, so very very extensive damage."

Airport pipe burst

Coughlan said anyone still without electricity should make sure to call Newfoundland Power and ensure they're on the list.

At St. John's International Airport, flights are still delayed for departures and arrivals Monday.

A water pipe burst above an Air Canada check-in counter on Sunday, and water came pouring down.

One employee told CBC it was freezing on Sunday, when the airport was on minimum power amid power warnings.

A number of schools were closed either for the morning or for the full day Monday, citing power outages and heating system problems.

Multiple main power lines were knocked out over the weekend, as hurricane-force winds gusted on the Avalon Peninsula.

Peak gust recorded at Argentia reached 180 km/h, according to CBC meteorologist Ryan Snoddon.

The City of St. John's has lifted a water conservation order put in place Monday morning.

Workers overnight observed problems with the power feed to the Bay Bulls Big Pond water supply.

The order was lifted around noon.