High winds, rain, wreak havoc on roads, power
Posted Jan 26, 2010 05:53:09 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A powerful storm is drenching metro with wind gusts over 80 kilometres an hour.
the weather is affecting the drive, power and school buses.
Wind gusts of up to 85 km an hour were reported at the airport around 5 a.m. and pounding rain poses a danger of localized flooding in some places.
The roads are drenched and there’s standing water in quite a few places, but News 95.7 meterologist Richard Zurawski says despite the warm temperatures, there’s also a risk of ice.
“Becuase the ground is still frozen, there’s a good chance of getting some black ice on the roads, or a little slippery stuff underneath the water,” he said. “So really keep that in mind when you’re travelling from A to B.”
Stock Transportation reports bus drivers are using their discretion on side roads in HRM. In the South Shore Regional School Board, buses are running on paved roads only, and the Chignecto Central Regional School Board reports buses will run on paved roads in Colchester and Pictou. Otherwise, it’s business as usual.
Power outages have closed West King’s District High in the Annapolis Valley Regional School Board and Beechville-Lakeside-Timberlea School in HRM for the day. Exams scheduled for today at West King’s will now be written tomorrow, Jan. 27.
There are currently a little more than 4000 customers without power across the province, most in Timberlea and St. Margaret’s Bay. A complete list of affected areas can be found on Nova Scotia Power’s website. Most of the outages will be resolved by noon.
The good news, according Zurawski, is that the weather system will blow itself out before much longer, and the warm temperatures will linger for a few days.
“It looks like nothing’s going to get much colder until Friday or Saturday,” he said. “Right now, the daytime highs are about seven degrees above normal and the nighttime lows are almost 10 degrees above normal.”
Zurawski says we can expect clouds and scattered showers as early as this afternoon.
