Fiona relief funding announced as thousands still without power Monday
CBC
The government of New Brunswick is providing disaster relief financial assistance for people affected by post-tropical storm Fiona.
In a news release, the province said the program applies to individuals, small businesses, not-for-profit organizations and municipalities that suffered property damage on Sept. 23 and Sept. 24.
Residents affected can report damage by calling 1-888-298-8555 or online. Phone reporting is only available between 8 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. from Monday to Friday and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays.
"Reporting damage to the government as soon as possible is an important part of the provincial damage assessment and recovery process," the release said.
The release said health and safety inspection teams "may be dispatched if required," to help assess the damage.
Once people register, they will receive an application package in the mail. They can also get the package online, the release said, but they must still register before filling one out.
The deadline to submit an application is Jan. 31, 2023.
Fiona caused significant damage in the province. On Saturday, winds reached more than 100 km/h, and a storm surge along the eastern coast damaged homes, roads and bridges.
More than 95,000 N.B. Power customers lost power over the course of the storm. By Sunday night, power was restored to 85 per cent of them, but thousands still were in the dark, and some people in southeastern New Brunswick are waking up to a third day of no power.
More than 13,600 customers did not have power as of 9:30 a.m. AT Monday.
N.B. Power spokesperson Dominique Couture said that of those 13,000, about 5,500 are affected new outages that have been reported overnight in the Acadian Peninsula and in the Fredericton area.
"Those are still under investigation," Couture told Information Morning Fredericton.
She said the biggest challenge the utility is facing is the large number of outages affecting small clusters of customers, and some roads are still blocked.
"The number of isolated outages we need to address, to either make repairs or things of that nature, is making it challenging at this time," she said.