A full week without power and soldiers in the streets is what some New Brunswick residents are seeing Tuesday as the Acadian peninsula struggles with its rebound from an ice storm.
The vast majority of the 19,000 people without electricity live in northeastern New Brunswick where 200 members of the Canadian Armed Forces arrived in a relief effort on Monday.
Originally, 133,000 lost power to their homes and businesses last Tuesday following heavy winds and frozen precipitation.
New Brunswick Power said it expected a return to 60% of its capacity by last night as it addressed the 350 downed poles.
In Fredericton, the operations manager at Wilson Insurance, Lisa Colwell, said they were affected but fortunate.
“We’ve had some great turn around making sure our clients have been in contact with an adjuster and any emergency work has been taken care of,” Colwell said.
The province’s capital was only offline for 48 hours, Colwell said, and since then has offered advice for its northern neighbours.
“We’ve been sharing the message about generator safety and carbon monoxide and pipes just so we can mitigate any kind of losses that they’re going to have,” Colwell said.
Want the latest insurance industry news first? Sign up for our completely free newsletter service now.
There have been 31 cases of carbon monoxide poisoning in New Brunswick hospitals according to its premier, Brian Gallant.
Two died last week from carbon monoxide poisoning and Premier Gallant cautioned against using generators in homes or garages.
Colwell too was advising her clients on post-storm safety.
“If you are away from your home, make sure someone’s checking the home on a regular basis because of the clause in the policy,” Colwell said.
“Leading up to the storm, we would use every opportunity we had to talk about winter safety.”
Firefighters are travelling door to door, alerting people of local shelters and the troops are now assisting the effort.
Related stories:
.jpg)
