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 57,000 homes and businesses in Nova Scotia remained without electricity as of about 4:30 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.
New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland were also battered by the Christmas Day storm, but no significant power outages were reported in those provinces as of early this morning.