Maritime storm cripples East Coast as cleanup begins

The remnants of a spring blizzard continue to paralyze the three Maritime provinces, hampering cleanup efforts.

Nova Scotia has all but ground to a halt.

The main route out of Nova Scotia is closed. The highway connecting Truro and Moncton, N.B. is shut due to poor visibility.

More than 17,000 Nova Scotia Power customers were in the dark just before 5 p.m. AT. That number has since shrunk, but thousands are still without power.

The utility is reporting that it could take until 11:30 a.m. on Thursday to fix all the outages. A warming centre has been set up at the fire hall in Lockport.

Schools were closed in parts of Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and New Brunswick. A number of businesses and offices sent their employees home.

Preparations for the storm began early, with airports in the region cancelling dozens of flights in anticipation of whiteout conditions forecast by meteorologists.

On the CBC app? Click here to see the storm gif.

Nearly all other forms of transportation are also being affected.

Metro Transit in Halifax suspended its buses.

Marine Atlantic has cancelled all of its ferry crossings between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland for Wednesday and Thursday due to high winds and sea conditions.

All seven provincial ferries are tied up. The Department of Transportation tweeted no one can recall if that has ever happened before.

Maritime Bus, the region's interprovincial bus service, has cancelled all of its runs for Wednesday with the exception of the Halifax airport route, which is scheduled to continue for now.

Transportation officials in all three Maritime provinces urged drivers to stay off the roads if possible.

Even Canada Post won't be delivering mail in the Halifax region on Wednesday. The postal service said it will try again on Thursday.

The long list of cancellations across the province was a relief for Sean Irvine, the director of provincial operations for EMO Nova Scotia.

"They understand that this is probably going to be potentially the biggest storm of the year … and they know they need to take it seriously. The last, past experiences have showed us we do have to take these warnings seriously, so we're pretty satisfied," he said.

"Stay home. Keep yourself warm and safe, and be prepared for the worst and hope for the best."

The storm started just before 7 a.m. in southwestern Nova Scotia and spread across the province. Heavy snow mixed with high winds, gusting up to 120 kilometres an hour in some areas​.

"The south and southeast of New Brunswick, as well as western P.E.I., could see snowfall accumulations of 30 to 50 centimetres," said CBC meteorologist Kalin Mitchell.

"In eastern P.E.I., some mixing in of rain is expected late in the day on Wednesday and may keep snowfall amounts slightly lower, but not by much."

He said visibility is well below one kilometre.

Environment Canada said the possibility of damage is real because a storm surge will bring rising waters along the coastlines of Nova Scotia and northeastern New Brunswick — in some cases 50 to 80 centimetres higher than normal, with strong waves driving the sea into shore.

"That is definitely something we have to keep an eye on, especially if it coincides with high tides," said Tracey Talbot, a forecaster with Environment Canada.

"With the storm surge we're expecting, we could see some flooding and some local infrastructure damage."

Fishermen near Sambro heard the warnings and headed into port Tuesday ahead of the storm.

The crew of the halibut boat On a Mission weren't taking any chances.

Tyler Henneberry said they used five lines to tie the vessel up instead of the usual three.

"You've got to make sure your boat is secured to the wharf," he said. "We came in a couple of days ago, because it was getting real bad, so we're just playing it safe."

The area was hit hard by Hurricane Juan in 2003, and it's something the fishermen won't soon forget. This time they've filled their boats' fuel tanks to add extra weight.

"Most of the time, in a storm like this, we'd be out, but this is one of the times we're in,” said crew member Wes Henneberry.

“We have some extra chains that we put on the boat because of the storm surge that's going to come up here really high. Here where we're standing will probably be under water by midday."