Post-tropical storm Arthur causes power outage to more than 200,000 homes in the Maritimes, Canada

More than 200,000 homes and businesses in the Maritimes are without electricity Saturday as post-tropical storm Arthur batters parts of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

With the number of power outages climbing steadily throughout the day, officials with the Canadian Hurricane Centre said conditions of heavy rain and strong winds were likely to persist into Saturday evening.

The storm was downgraded from hurricane status with sustained winds of about 110 km/h as it approached landfall in the Yarmouth area of NovaScotia at about 7:30 a.m. AT.

In New Brunswick, the number of NB Power customers who lost service was more than 106,000, including almost 53,000 in the Fredericton area, at 3:30 p.m. There were almost 1,300 separate outages recorded in New Brunswick.

“And we do expect those numbers to climb because the storm is continuing to go along at a pretty good clip,” said NB Power spokesman Bob Scott.

In Nova Scotia, more than 100,000 customers were affected by power outages as of 2 p.m. AT.

RCMP issued a warning about falling trees, debris and downed power lines. In Onslow, N.S. firefighters had to cut apart a tree limb to rescue a man who was trapped underneath.

CBC meteorologist Kalin Mitchell said Arthur had completed its transition to an extra-tropical system by mid-afternoon. The centre of the storm was moving up the Bay of Fundy toward Cape Chignecto at a speed of about 30 km/h. Mitchell advised people to be alert for powerful winds associated with the low pressure system.

When NB Power was hit with major outages due to a series of winter storms over the Christmas period last year, the number of customers without power at any one time peaked at 54,000. Over the course of those 11 days, 88,000 NB Power customers were affected.

Scott said people should be prepared to be without power for 48 to 72 hours.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean they will be, but they should be prepared to be just in case they are,” said Scott.