About 47,000 without power after blizzard in Nova Scotia

Hundreds of Nova Scotia Power crews will spend Boxing Day stitching together power lines snapped by a winter storm that brought damaging winds to Atlantic Canada on Christmas Day.

Just over 47,000 homes and businesses in Nova Scotia remained without electricity as of about 10:30 a.m. Around 58,000 customers who were blacked out had their power returned by late Monday night.

The provincial utility said more than 500 personnel would be working today to restore service.

But even with the extra help, the power company says damage is substantial and the “vast majority of customers” may not have their electricity restored until noon Wednesday.

The storm brought winds gusting up to 100 kilometres perm hour along the Atlantic Coast, along with a mix of snow, freezing rain and rain across the province. Today’s forecast for much of Nova Scotia calls for a few centimetres of snow with winds gusting to 50 kilometres per hour.

NL Hydro reported outages early Tuesday affecting Port Saunders, Eddies Cove and Port Au Choix. The utility has not said when power would return and did not have a restoration estimate.