High winds knock out power for tens of thousands in Nova Scotia
Tens of thousands of Nova Scotia Power customers are without power Saturday after high winds and rain hit the province overnight.
The utility said in a statement that as of 8 a.m. AT Saturday, about 186,000 customers had lost power in total.
As of 2:15 p.m., Nova Scotia Power's outage map showed roughly 47,000 customers still without power.
High winds cancelled and delayed some flights out of Halifax Stanfield International Airport, while ferry sailings between North Sydney and Newfoundland have been cancelled for the day.
Nova Scotia Power said more than 600 people are in the field working to safely restore power as quickly as possible.
"Our crews have been working through some challenging conditions with high wind bringing trees and branches into power lines, broken poles and at times, poor visibility,” Pam Scully-Poirier, Nova Scotia Power’s storm lead, said in a statement.
The utility said it will be using a helicopter to patrol power lines in different parts of the province to search for damage.
In Halifax, the owners of Local Source Market were scrambling to get power restored after a tree came down on a power line connected to the store.
"We're just kind of in a holding pattern, trying to find emergency crews to come in," said founder and co-owner Sean Gallagher.
The grocery store, which sells food and gifts sourced from Nova Scotia farmers and artisans, has been without power since Friday night.
"We've got people’s turkeys and a huge parking lot full of people just like, dying to pick up their stuff, said Gallagher. "We've turned on a generator to keep our big walk-in fridge and freezer going."
CBC meteorologist Ryan Snoddon said widespread gusts of 80 to 100 km/h hit Nova Scotia, southern New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
Peak gusts were in the 100 to 120 km/h range in exposed areas. The top recorded wind gust for Nova Scotia was 127 km/h in Monastery, Antigonish County.
Header image courtesy of Nova Scotia Power.
This article was originally published by CBC News on Dec. 20, 2025.