100,000 Nova Scotians Have No Electricity

[Jenya]

Nova Scotians Demand Answers About Power

By: ANDREW DAVIDSON
Globe And Mail

Tuesday November 16,2004

HALAFAX, NS— Tara Yaschuk, without electricity and with six children to care for, has become the symbol of Nova Scotians' fury over the power company's inability to handle a storm.

The 35-year-old woman charged into the legislature yesterday and blasted government and Nova Scotia Power officials in the middle of their press conference.

"I'm a Nova Scotian," Ms. Yaschuk said last night. "I was born and raised and educated here, and when something happens that affects the well-being of my family, I tend to get a bit assertive."

Ms. Yaschuk's home in Lewis Lake has been without power, telephone service or running water since Sunday morning, when a snowstorm caused a widespread blackout, leaving 100,000 homes and businesses in the dark.

Ms. Yaschuk, a recruiting consultant for Brunell Energy, a local offshore services company, said she was just articulating what most in her province are feeling when she interrupted the news conference and delivered a six-minute lecture to those she viewed as responsible for the outage.

"It is unacceptable, completely unacceptable," she said during her address.

"Something has to be done. I live in a developed country. I do not live in a Third World country. I pay taxes to enjoy that privilege of living in a developed country."

Her words have rung true to many Nova Scotians bewildered by how Sunday's snowstorm — viewed by them as average for the province during winter — could deliver such a blow by knocking down 12 metal and wooden transmission towers to cause the province's third major power failure in just over a year.

Ms. Yaschuk said she was determined to get an answer from people in the highest positions of authority as to why it is expected to take up to a week to restore power to all customers.

In the aftermath of what seemed like a typical snowstorm, many residents in Nova Scotia are asking the same questions. In particular, some have come forward to suggest the utility's transmission lines and towers should have been able to withstand the 90-kilometre-an-hour winds and heavy, wet snowfall that lashed the province.

Up to 45 centimetres of snow fell on some parts of the province, but there was much less than that on the ground in Dartmouth, where four of the utility's metal towers crumpled as if they were made of wet cardboard.

Ian Thompson, a public affairs manager at the utility, denied that the company's towers and lines were in anything but pristine condition.

"All of the evidence that we would have is that our infrastructure is very solid," he said.

Mr. Thompson said the weather that arrived on the weekend "was not a garden-variety storm."

He said the damage was comparable to the mess left behind by hurricane Juan, which tore through Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island in the fall of 2003.

That storm brought a peak gust of 231 kilometres an hour — more than double the speed recorded on the weekend — and caused $113-million in insurable damage. As well, about 300,000 in the Maritimes were left without power after the hurricane, and seven deaths were linked to the storm.

So far, no reports of serious damage or injuries have been linked to Sunday's storm.

Nova Scotia Power's response to hurricane Juan was criticized by a U.S. consultant, who said the utility was disorganized and understaffed.

Ms. Yaschuk said the power company is exaggerating the force of the weekend storm in order to avoid taking the blame, and will have to provide some form of compensation.

"They are going to have to take it on the nose," she said from the relative comfort of her mother's house in Dartmouth, about a half-hour drive from her home, where she, her common-law husband, her children and her two parents are sharing a three-bedroom bungalow.

The mayor of the Halifax Regional Municipality and both opposition parties have called for an independent review to determine whether Nova Scotia Power, a former Crown corporation that was privatized in 1992, has let maintenance slide in its quest for profit.

David Watson, a volunteer firefighter in the small community of Halls Harbour, N.S., said rural residents are tired of what they see as a decline in service since the utility was transformed into a publicly traded company.

"You get a storm like this, I don't think the manpower is there . . . to be able to combat this," said Mr. Watson, who had been driving around with a generator, helping people save freezers full of food.

Meanwhile, callers to local radio stations were furious.

"This storm was not unusual with what's expected in the winter," said one caller. "Yet we have 100,000 without power. I think that this shows the privatization of power systems is not working. It's not in the public interest."

Howard Epstein, the New Democratic emergency measures critic, questioned how much the utility had learned from its hurricane experience and from a blizzard last winter that dumped 95 centimetres of snow on Halifax.

"I think people are very fed up," he said. "And I've heard them talking about whether they can make Nova Scotia Power legally responsible for losses."

Mr. Thompson said he sympathized with frustrated customers and assured them the company is moving as quickly as it could to assess damage and restore service.

The utility's call centre was overwhelmed with 250,000 inquiries, mostly from angry people who, as the temperature hovered around freezing, wanted to know when the lights and heat would be restored.

With a report from Canadian Press


Photo: Andrew Vaughan/CP

Several power transmission towers are
toppled by heavy, wet snow, coupled
with high winds in Dartmouth, N.S.,
on Sunday.

[crystals]

That's terrible. I haven't got a chance to see the news yet today. At supper I'll watch CTV Newsnet and see if they air this story.

[*MIBabe03*]

Bummer.