Over 79,000 without power as Fiona moves toward P.E.I.

Tens of thousands of Maritime Electric customers are without power in P.E.I. as Fiona makes its approach toward the Island.

A hurricane warning is in place for all three counties in P.E.I. and the nearby Magdalen Islands, with Category 1 hurricane winds and torrential rains expected for Friday night, according to Environment Canada.

As of 4:10 a.m. AT on Saturday, more than 79,000 P.E.I. homes were without power, as shown on the Maritime Electric outage map. The majority of the affected homes are in the Charlottetown area and Kings County in the east.

Maritime Electric has about 86,000 customers, according to their website.

Environment Canada expects Kings County to see the most rain, with Queens and Kings counties likely to experience the worst winds.

In Nova Scotia, there were over 300,000 households without power.

Maritime Electric spokesperson Kim Griffin told CBC News the utility expected power outages Saturday, and it will be hard to determine when power would be restored. Griffin said it's possible some customers could still be without power Sunday.

Charlottetown police said on Twitter at around 1 a.m. that Maritime Electric had pulled crews off the roads until conditions improve. 

About half an hour later, it said the city's Public Works had also pulled crews. Police said there were multiple reports of downed trees, power lines and roads blocked.

"Police, fire, and EMS will continue responding to emergency calls," the tweet read. "Stay inside."

Provincial dispatchers said the province doesn't have vehicles on the roads, and that they would only escort EMS or first responders if requested — which hadn't happened as of 3 a.m.

Queens and Kings county dispatchers say they're getting many reports of fallen trees.

P.E.I. has been under severe weather warnings since Friday, with Environment Canada warning of heavy rainfall, localized flooding, flash floods, dangerous wind gusts and higher than normal water levels. The 2:55 a.m. AT forecast warned Islanders to expect the following conditions:

Over P.E.I. and parts of northern Nova Scotia, residents were warned winds could gust up to 140 or 150 km/h. At around midnight, the Canadian Hurricane Centre said so far the highest wind gusts reported were in Beaver Island at 152 km/h.