How a 'gloriously independent' N.S. island survived Fiona without losing power

While the post-storm chaos left much of the Maritimes powerless, one small island didn't lose a single connection. 

Sitting between P.E.I. and Nova Scotia, tiny Pictou Island, N.S., had an ace up its sleeve: the entire island provides its own power. 

"It does feel rather odd to be on an island in the Northumberland Strait and feel that I have fared things better than people on the mainland," said Linda Schweitzer, one of the two dozen people who were on the island as the post-tropical storm blasted the Maritimes. 

She said up to 100 people live on the island in the warmer weather and they are "gloriously independent" of power utilities. 

"We are off the grid completely, all of us," she told CBC Radio's Information Morning Nova Scotia on Wednesday. 

"Almost all of us have at least some solar system. If you live here year-round, you have a big solar system. We were never really worried about power, and pretty much everyone has a backup generator."

You need to take a boat to get to the island, and the boat only runs May to November.

"Then it's by plane, which lands on a portion of the road."

Schweitzer said she arrived from her mainland home on Thursday to prepare her cottage for the storm, which hit the island hard.  

"Folks are just saying we are incredibly lucky. Nobody was hurt. Property damage overall has been not too bad," she said.

Two cottages were blown off their bases and a few smaller outbuildings were destroyed, she said. Roofs, chimneys and solar panels also got blown down.

"The winds knocked a lot of the trees down. Tree damage is extensive," she said.

"When the winds stopped, the community got together and started clearing the main road. There were just gangs of people with chainsaws and a tractor."

She said islanders will turn the fallen trees into heat. "That's the new hobby for folks now — getting firewood."

She said the events reaffirmed why people chose to live on Pictou Island, which was originally settled in the early 1800s by Irish and Scottish immigrants. 

"It's very comforting on some level. The diehard islanders say we don't have to rely on that so we're always better off," she said.

"But at the same time you never know when something is going to go wrong, and if something goes wrong with your [solar] system, you're out of luck. If you can't fix it yourself, you have to be able to wait for somebody to come over on a boat and help you."

Most people have a generator, too, to keep the lights on during sunless winter days. She said even those who winter off-island have a fresh appreciation for it. 

"My neighbour, she arrived on the boat on Sunday with coolers full of everything from her fridge and freezer on the mainland," she said. "She said we have no power on the mainland, so I'm coming here where I can be warm and have power."