9 communities still with large pockets of outages across P.E.I.

Nine communities in P.E.I. are going into a sixth day Friday with large pockets of outages following post-tropical storm Dorian last weekend.

At 10 p.m., Maritime Electric listed 2,594 customers without power. The communities with 100 or more outages are:

• Southwest Lot 16.
• Seaview.
• Point Prim.
• New London.
• Darnley.
• Green Meadows.
• Kensington.
• Long River.
• Mount Buchanan.

Maritime Electric spokesperson Kim Griffin said she hoped repair crews would be able to get these significant outage areas back on by the end of Friday, but individual outages could take a few more days.

Friday morning the utility was able to get power back to 800 customers, Griffin said.

"We made some progress in both east, west and central, we still have probably over 500 outages in four or five main pockets of customers in Kensington, Victoria Cross, Wellington and west St. Peters," Griffin said.

Crews have been working to restore the pockets of outages across the Island since 7 a.m. Friday, and the utility took a helicopter Friday morning to double check if anything else came down because of wind on Thursday night, Griffin said.

"I think that our crews are making headway," she said.

However, Griffin said she still thinks it could be Sunday before power is fully restored.

"It's just basically a daily assessment at this point," she said.

Griffin admitted "ground was lost" on Thursday because of wind and rain.

Once the larger outages are fixed, the utility will be able to turn its attention to smaller and individual outages, Griffin said.

More crews and a bucket truck are headed to the Island Friday evening to help with power restoration efforts over the weekend, Griffin said.

"It's extremely frustrating for our last 4,000 customers who are without. People have been really sad and upset," Griffin said.

Many people have had to throw out food due to power being out for six days.

"We feel really bad about that and I think our crews are feeling it too," Griffin said.

Scam warning

There have also been reports of a scam where people are being told they have a credit on their Maritime Electric account and the caller asks for information. Griffin said Maritime Electric is not making those calls.

"Just hang up the phone and call our 1-800-670-1012 number just to double check," she said.

Griffin said she finds it sad anyone would try to take advantage of customers without power and reports of the scam have been reported to police.

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