Powerful gusts from spring blizzard lash East Coast, causing blackouts

HALIFAX – A spring blizzard that one forecaster dubbed a ‘monster nor’easter’ descended on Atlantic Canada on Wednesday, hurling icy shards at terrific speeds across the region for much of the day and into the evening.

Howling winds pulled down power lines across the Maritimes, leaving about 16,000 Nova Scotians in the dark at one point. Outages were also reported in southern New Brunswick and across P.E.I. where 59 communities were without power just before 9 p.m.

The Trans-Canada Highway between Truro, N.S., and Moncton, N.B., was closed as blowing snow made the highway impassable. The story was the same in western Newfounland later in the day as blowing snow left a mess on highways between Port aux Basques and Corner Brook.

Most schools and government offices were closed in the Maritimes. Flights, ferry services and public transit services were cancelled, and even the Confederation Bridge to P.E.I. wasclosed as powerful gusts howled across the Northumberland Strait.

In Grand Etang, on the notoriously windy west side of Cape Breton, a gust from the east reached 172 kilometres per hour.

By 7 p.m., the wind was gusting at an incredible 185 kilometres per hour at Wreckhouse in western Newfoundland, another area famous for powerful winds that roar down nearby hills.

Sean Irvine, director of Nova Scotia’s Emergency Management Office, said warnings about the storm helped people prepare, though he cautioned that high winds today could cause more problems for those in Nova Scotia and beyond.

There were no reports of major damage, he said.

The forecast had called for heavy snow across the region, but the numbers weren’t that impressive by 8 p.m.

In Nova Scotia, the community of Amherst received the most snow at 40 centimetres. Halifax reported only 16 centimetres and there was 28 centimetres on the ground in Charlottetown.