Post-tropical storm Noel was still disrupting the lives of Nova Scotians on Monday night, almost two days after it lashed the province with high winds and rain.
Some 13,000 homes and businesses still had no power as of 10 p.m. Monday, and a coastal road running alongside one of the province’s popular beaches lay in ruins.
It could be as late as 11:30 p.m. tonight before customers in some areas of the Eastern Shore and Pictou, Guysborough and Cape Breton counties have their electricity restored.
Noel, whose wind gusts peaked at 135 kilometres an hour on McNabs Island in Halifax Harbour at 4 a.m. Sunday, knocked out power to 170,000 homes and businesses across the province, sending more than 230 work crews into action restoring lines and clearing downed trees.
By Monday morning, 49,000 Nova Scotia Power customers still couldn’t take a hot shower or cook their breakfasts at home. By 3 p.m., that number had dropped to 30,000, with the help of power crews from New Brunswick, Quebec and Maine who were slated to work until midnight Monday and resume their efforts early today.
Halifax Regional Municipality was one of the hardest-hit areas in the province, and about 1,000 households in the urban part of the municipality still had no power Monday evening.
"We will, of course, do every effort we can to bring it back on sooner," Margaret Murphy, a Nova Scotia Power spokeswoman, said Monday afternoon of customers who could remain without electricity until tonight.
The stress of sitting in a cold home without power was wearing on Erin Wilson, a Halifax mother who used a fondue set and candles to boil water to warm bottles for her four-month-old daughter. Ms. Wilson’s Duncan Street home lost power at about 4 a.m. Sunday.
She said a Nova Scotia Power customer service representative told her that her case would be a priority because she and her fiance have a young child. When Ms. Wilson called again late Sunday, she was told to contact the Emergency Management Office.
"I don’t know what that would have done, so we didn’t call them," she said.
On Monday afternoon, the couple were told that crews were attending to bigger areas first.
"I guess what makes me the most upset is that they’re (Nova Scotia Power) going to the media and saying they’re doing such a wonderful job and they’re not. It’s not like we live out in the middle of nowhere. We’re almost downtown."
No one from Nova Scotia Power was available Monday afternoon to speak about Ms. Wilson’s situation.
Residents and visitors on the South Shore were in awe Monday of Noel’s devastation of the road bordering Queensland Beach. The pavement looked like it had been ripped and crumpled like paper.
"It looks just like an earthquake hit," Kelly Backman said.
Ms. Backman and her husband Tim, of Halifax, were working in Hubbards and came down to survey the damage. The long stretch of road was blocked to motorists but was still accessible on foot.
Beach rocks were thrown onto parts of Conrads Road and littered the parking lot across the road from Queens-land Beach.
Tom Hurshman, a Queensland resident who arrived with his camera, said hurricane Juan, in late September 2003, "did a little damage, but nothing like this. This got the pavement all tore up. They’re going to have to redo it all over again."
Transportation Department crews were working to restore order there and in Indian Harbour and Peggys Cove, where road shoulders were washed out.
"We have already cleared trees that were toppled and were on the road," department spokesman Dan Davis said.
Transportation Minister Murray Scott toured the Queensland site Monday afternoon.
In the Peggys Cove area, Noel washed out three shoulders along Highway 333, leaving one guardrail dangling. Large waves continued to crash on the rocks as tourists snapped photos of the famous lighthouse.
The Sou’wester Restaurant was closed due to what appeared to be minor damage. For the most part, the scenic route appeared unscathed.
But the damage was all too real for Barry Colpitts, a well-known carver of folk art in East Ship Harbour. He said Noel’s wrath wrecked his livelihood.
He said he lost about 100 trees in the storm and his painting shed was lifted about three metres and rolled into the woods, destroying several pieces.
A 1.2-metre statue of Jesus also blew off Mr. Colpitts’ brightly coloured house and landed on his porch.
"I got him in the house now because he’s smashed up," he said.
Noel also cost him about $200 worth of paint and all his paintbrushes, he said.
Mr. Colpitts sells to galleries and individual customers and said he makes $14,000 to $15,000 after expenses in a "real good year." He thinks Noel will cost him about $2,000.
The storm also put a beating on his pasture, where he has a couple of oxen and a beef cow.
"It’s just a mess, a tangle of barbed wire and roots and tree trunks," Mr. Colpitts said. "It’s a terrible, terrible mess."
And he was still without electricity Monday.
"You would think it wouldn’t affect my carving so much because I don’t use power for my carving, but it’s so frigging dark," Mr. Colpitts said. "I’m going to cut my fingers off trying to (carve)."
Outages also gave some students an unexpected holiday. The Halifax regional school board closed 20 of its 137 schools Monday, mostly on the Eastern Shore. Updates can be obtained online at www.hrsb.ns.ca or by calling the school cancellation line at 464-4636.
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