Some P.E.I. residents taking frustration out on Maritime Electric crews

Maritime Electric crews have experienced both the appreciation of P.E.I. residents who have had their power hooked up and the frustration of those who haven't, says spokesperson Kim Griffin.

Overall, she said, people have been kind to the more than 200 crews fanning out to try to fix the damage from post-tropical storm Fiona.

But there have been some "challenging incidents" where they have needed assistance from police.

"We understand some people are just really having a hard time. If you think about it, we're not even out of the pandemic and COVID, but there's been that extra layer on top of it," Griffin told CBC News on Tuesday.

Griffin said one person had to be escorted off a work site, and there was another incident where a driver, perhaps distracted, hit a Maritime Electric truck that was setting up to tackle an outage.

Griffin pointed out that the workers themselves know how inconvenient it is to be without power — they've had their own personal damage to deal with after Fiona slammed the province on Sept. 24. 

"When I ask them if they're tired, they say, 'Don't ask me that. I got this.'" 

While crews appreciate the kindness of most residents they meet along the roadways of P.E.I., she is asking people to avoid distracting them so the work can be done more safely and efficiently.

"It's hard for us to say 'Please don't stop our crew' because our crew loves to talk and say hello to people, but it does slow them down," she said.

"Our employees have to be extra careful and they have to be focused and we can't have them worrying about, you know, distractions. They have to be absolutely 100-per-cent focused when they're energizing these lines."