Kim Griffin, spokesperson for Maritime Electric, says hundreds of people worked 17-hour days, seven days a week dealing with the aftermath of post-tropical storm Fiona in September 2022. - Dave Stewart/SaltWireSaltWire's Atlantic regional weather forecast for September 19, 2023 | SaltWireThis is part of an ongoing series of stories leading up to the one-year anniversary of post-tropical storm Fiona, Sept. 23-24.
For the first time in the company’s 100-year-plus history, 99 per cent of its 89,000 customers were in the dark. Many of those customers would go more than three weeks without electricity. “Most times, the majority of my day was trying to figure out how we were progressing and making sure I could help people understand that."
Maritime Electric works behind a downed tree that is blocking this road in Prince Edward Island. - Maritime Electric/Special to SaltWire“The crews that came from off-Island were not used to that," she said.Griffin said officials knew Fiona was going to be bad, but no one expected it to become the worst storm in the utility’s history.
Maritime Electric lost 1,200 electrical poles of the 140,000 it has across P.E.I. That is less than one per cent.“Some roads were completely blocked so our crews couldn't get through," Griffin said. “In the winter time, if you can’t get through the snow you can call a snowplow. In this case, the trucks were able to drive over some of the tree debris but not all of it."Griffin said not a day goes by that officials do not bring up Fiona in one way or another.
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