Thunderstorm knocks out power to thousands in HRM; NS Power brings in additional crews (6 photos, update)
Posted Jul 21, 2019 11:35:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Nova Scotia Power has brought in additional crews from across the province to get the electricity flowing to thousands of homes and businesses in the Halifax area.
This after a powerful thunderstorm rolled through the region Sunday evening.
As of 9:20 p.m. Sunday, around 33,000 customers in the Halifax area are without power, according to Nova Scotia Power's outage map.
The affected area includes much of the peninsula, Armdale, Spryfield, Sherwood Heights, Clayton Park West, Herring Cove and Ketch Harbour.
The utility says a lightning strike at the Lakeside substation caused the outage in the Clayton Park West and Kearney Lake areas.
It says, now that the fire is extinguished, crews can start safely repairing and replacing damaged equipment.
Video circulating on social media (see below) shows lightning also hitting the Tufts Cove Generating Station, however that has not yet been confirmed by Nova Scotia Power.
In addition, several trees were knocked down during the short burst of intense weather, damaging power lines around the municipality.
On the outage map, some of the causes are still under investigation, while equipment damage is the reported cause of others.
The estimated restoration time for most of the outages is 11:30 p.m.
Nova Scotia Power says if you see a downed wire, stay away and report it immediately at 1-877-428-6004.
