Members of a team representing Nova Scotia Power visited Inverness Co. councillors to answer questions regarding NSP’s response following Hurricane Dorian.
Paul Casey, the utility’s vice-president of transmission and distribution and delivery, made a presentation on their response to the September storm at November’s regular municipal council meeting Thursday afternoon.
After the meeting, Betty Ann MacQuarrie, the warden of Inverness Co., said there were a number of important infrastructure pieces in the county that weren’t on NSP’s critical customer list.
“We had to make sure that they were called on it,” she said. “(There) wasn’t an automatic identifier on it to make sure that it was in priority.”
MacQuarrie said that led to critical sites going without power for a considerable amount of time after the storm.
She said they’ve worked to address those gaps.
“(We’ve been) identifying the critical areas that need special attention, such as hospitals of course, and water treatment plants and wastewater treatment plants that have to continue to operate when the power’s off,” she said. “When there’s long-term power outages they kick out, and it’s not a good result in communities.”
MacQuarrie said all critical infrastructure in Inverness Co. has since been added to NSP’s critical customer list.
