170,000 homes without power

BY STEPHANE MASSINON
The Daily News

A family looks over a large tree that was knocked down by post-tropical storm Noel at the intersection of Quinpool Road and Rosebank Ave. on Sunday morning. (Daily News/Ryan Taplin)

Nova Scotia Power crews are working to bring back power to the 170,000 homes still without power because of post tropical storm Noel.

Of those homes, an approximate 50,000 of them are in HRM. The homes without power are scattered throughout the municipality.

NSP spokeswoman Margaret Murphy said the utility is bringing in extra crews from as far away as Quebec to help restore power.

"For most everywhere in Nova Scotia, we're saying that many customers will have their power back on late Monday," Murphy said.

The QEII Health Sciences Centre was forced to use power from generators.

The police are warning people to be careful near downed lines.

"RCMP want to remind the public that there is several power lines down and outages within the HRM and to treat all intersections where lights are out as four way stops," Cpl. Joe Taplin said.

Mayor Peter Kelly said residents seem well prepared for the storm and said it was beneficial that it hit overnight and on a weekend.

"Compared to (Hurricane) Juan, we did get off considerably better," Kelly said.

An additional 50-100 HRM fire services volunteers are also helping to clear debris and trees.