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Residents on Fogo Island, the Change Islands and other parts of central Newfoundland remain without power Tuesday night due to storm gusts early Tuesday, with some areas without power or heat for about 8 p.m.
As of 7:45 pm PT Tuesday, approximately 4,000 Newfoundland Power customers were without power due to severe weather conditions.
Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro also reported outages, affecting about 1,900 additional customers.
Roland Wells lives on Fogo Island. He had been without power since 11:30 pm Monday.
Wind speeds in the area reached 150 km/h on Tuesday morning, he said.
“We just laid low overnight and expected the situation to improve in the morning, but that hasn't happened yet,” Wells told CBC News on Tuesday night.
Power was expected to be restored to communities on Fogo Island and Change Island at 5 p.m., but Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro said in a 6:30 p.m. update that crews were experiencing multiple problems. Power is expected to be restored at 10 p.m.
CBC News has asked Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro for more information.
“They've done a lot of work on the system, so we expected it to be a little more robust than it was before,” Wells said.
Wells said this isn't the first storm to knock out his power for an extended period this season, and the lack of power or reliable cell service is a challenge.
“I have elderly parents and in-laws here. They both work on mobile phones, and if they get sick, they won't be able to call an ambulance. They won't even be able to call us,” he said. “It's really scary.”
In the isolated island village of St Brendan, Mayor Bill Broderick estimates about 20 homes will be without power on Tuesday night.
Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro says about 60 customers were affected after crews were unable to reach St. Brendan's on Tuesday. An update on NL Hydro's website said crews will line up at the ferry on Wednesday morning.
“When you live on an isolated island, there's no question that it's a concern,” Broderick said of the extended power outage.
Twillingate Mayor Deborah Burden is experiencing similar problems. She said inadequate cellular service plagues the city on good days, and the situation only gets worse when cellular capacity increases due to people trying to text in the dark.
“This is our third storm this winter and this is the second storm where we've lost power for more than 10 or 14 hours,” Bourdain told CBC Radio.
“So this is a very big challenge for us as a community.”
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