About 10,000 P.E.I. homes and businesses still in the dark 11 days after Fiona

As of Tuesday evening, 11 days after post-tropical storm Fiona struck, about 10,000 customers of Maritime Electric still don't have power — and a significant portion of those won't get it back before the weekend.

The utility is aiming to have 97 to 98 per cent of its customers restored as of late Sunday, which would leave about 2,000 out after Sunday.

Maritime Electric has a list of communities and neighbourhoods that are still out posted on its site, giving the days when it expects to restore power to them. The utility has promised to update the list daily. 

Charlottetown has the largest number of outages, with 5,876 clients listed as still out in four separate neighbourhoods by Tuesday evening. With an average of 2.3 people per household, that represents about 13,500 people.

Maritime Electric expects to restore power in Hillsborough Park and Parkdale Tuesday, and in Upper Queen and Brighton on Wednesday.

Cornwall had about 500 customers restored Tuesday, leaving 518 still listed as being out. In the Keppoch area of Stratford about 1,100 customers will have to wait until Wednesday.

Here is where you can find the full list of communities and neighbourhoods.

Maritime Electric spokesperson Kim Griffin said the list was difficult to put together, because repairs can sometimes take longer than expected.

"Some pockets that should have taken us a day were taking us two or three days," said Griffin.

"It was part art and part science. It may not be perfect."

When arriving on site, crews doing a closer inspection may find trees that need to come down, and she said that can take more time. There may also be telecommunication lines or poles that are down that need to be cleared.

Military on P.E.I. to assist with post-Fiona recovery

2 years ago

Duration 2:16

Members of the Canadian Armed Forces arrived on P.E.I. this week to help provincial crews with Fiona cleanup efforts. CBC's Brian Higgins spoke with some of the personnel on the ground.

"We have a number of crews in the Charlottetown area," Griffin said. "We're starting to deploy some more crews from the west as they're finishing up there. We still have some areas of Stratford, and in Brighton and downtown Charlottetown. You know, those are still big pockets of areas in there that they're working on."

On Wednesday morning, she said, some crews will be deployed to some smaller or individual outages.

Federal money for rebuilding

Also on Tuesday, the federal government announced another $300 million in funding to cope with the storm's after-effects in the next two years. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Halifax to deliver the news.

• Prime minister announces $300M recovery package for Atlantic Canada in wake of Fiona

The Hurricane Fiona Recovery Fund, administered by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, is intended to help those impacted by the storm and to support long-term recovery efforts.

For example, it will be spent on:

• Helping local communities and businesses rebuild and recover more quickly from the impacts of Hurricane Fiona.
• Restoring the economic activity that local communities depend on by beginning to repair and rebuild critical infrastructure, including fishing wharves and small craft harbours that were damaged or destroyed by the storm. The federal government wants repairs to be made in such a way that infrastructure is better able to withstand future storms.
• Ensuring the safety of navigation and protecting marine wildlife.