How P.E.I. homeowners are coping without electricity

P.E.I. homeowners are doing their best to cope without electricity since a storm took down power poles last Thursday.

Power crews continued to work Monday to restore power to hundreds of customers, most in western P.E.I. 

We're probably not as spry as we were on Thursday.— Jason Flick, Maritime Electric worker

"We've been running the generator for our water and our heat and it's been great, but it's costing us a lot to do it," said Elizabeth Lewis of Union, P.E.I., near Alberton. The family has so far spent about $120 on gas for the generator.

Lewis said not since the storm of 1982 had their power been out for this long, but said she knew when she saw the broken power poles on their road it would be a while before electricity was restored. 

"There was no way we could have dealt with it," without a generator, Lewis said. 

'Guys are getting tired'

Lewis said her family was relieved to see a power crew near their house Monday morning, replacing the two downed poles and wires that knocked out power to the few houses on the rural, dead-end road. 

Isolated jobs like this are making it tough to get to the finish line, the Maritime Electric crew said. They were getting help from a crew and truck from Ontario.

"You might have 15 or 20 spans like this feeding two homes. And if you lose three or four poles, it's just very time consuming to put it back together," said crew member Jason Flick, adding he sympathized with homeowners who'd been without power so long. 

"There's no easy way to do it. And you know, guys are getting tired. This is going on four or five days, and we're probably not as spry as we were on Thursday."

Flaggers helping keep power crews safe on Island roads are also eager to see the work wrap up. 

"It's been lack of sleep and everyone's starting to get tired," said Josh Green, a flagger with Go with the Flow Traffic Control.  

People more prepared 

The Alberton Fire Department opened its doors for the fifth day in a row so the public could use it as a warming centre, but fire Chief Shannon Dunville said it wasn't busy there. 

He said he believes most in western P.E.I. are just better prepared for life without power than they used to be.

"A lot of people are equipped with generators, and they hear storms are coming so they make sure they have lots of gas," he said. 

"Seven years ago we had an ice storm, and the whole west end was without power for three days. So at that point in time people said, 'Well I'm going to get a generator, I'm going to be prepared for the next time,'" Dunville said. 

More P.E.I. news