About 8,000 P.E.I. households, businesses without power 12 days after Fiona

About 8,000 Maritime Electric customers still don't have power on Wednesday evening —12 days after post-tropical storm Fiona hit P.E.I.

The company has an online list that shows different areas on the Island, roughly how many customers still need power and when they can expect that power to be restored.

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The majority of neighbourhoods should have their power back by Wednesday evening, said spokesperson Kim Griffin.

However, places such as Mermaid and Johnstons River could be waiting until Thursday. Murray Harbour and Grand Tracadie are scheduled for Friday. Some customers in Stanhope could be without lights, heat or running water until Sunday.

The company said it would start deploying crews on Wednesday to focus on individual outages, including areas that just have one or two households without electricity.

Maritime Electric expects to have up to 98 per cent of power restored by Sunday — more than two weeks after the storm initially made landfall on the Island.

The post-tropical storm struck in the early morning hours of Sept. 24, causing widespread damage across the Island — fallen trees, destroyed crops, coastal erosion — and leaving 82,000 Maritime Electric customers without power in the immediate aftermath of the storm.

5 schools remain closed 

More students are also returning to the classroom on Wednesday. While the majority of students returned on Oct. 3, a handful of schools had remained closed due to power outages or damage from the storm.

Donagh Regional School reopened Wednesday, and those who attend Cardigan Consolidated will resume class in a temporary spot at Montague Regional High School.

Prince Street Elementary, Queen Charlotte Intermediate, St. Jean Elementary, West Kent Elementary and École Évangéline are still closed.

Classes at École Évangéline, which sustained substanial damage, are being moved to L'Exposition agricole et le Festival acadien grounds but no start date had been announced.

Norbert Carpenter, director of the Public Schools Branch, said he's concerned about the missed classroom time. But after consultation with the fire department, Maritime Electric, public works and other safety officials, the decision was made to keep the four English schools closed.

"It is very frustrating I think for our parents, and it's frustrating for us as well because we want the students back in schools but we do have to listen to the safety officials and their strong recommendations."

Red Cross registrations increasing

So far the Canadian Red Cross said almost $15 million has been raised for Fiona relief in Atlantic Canada, and a further announcement is expected later this week regarding how that money will be rolled out.

The organization had set up a disaster shelter in Charlottetown for those in need of temporary relocation. The shelter closed its doors late Tuesday night, but the cots, blankets and other items were left to the province.

"Individuals from the general public were not requesting specific support there," Bill Lawlor, director for the Red Cross on P.E.I., told Island Morning host Mitch Cormier.

Lawlor added that in some situations they were able to put people like seniors and those with children in hotels.

The province has also partnered with the Red Cross to provide eligible households with $250 in financial support.

According to the Lawlor, just over 8,000 Island households have now received that money, and registrations for the funds are increasing dramatically.

"We expected that ... [as] neighbourhoods become re-energized and have access to their utilities that they hadn't had early on," he said.

But the support only applies to primary residences, so cottage owners are not eligible.

"We really focus on the needs as opposed to the loss. I know there is a tremendous amount of loss but we're really focusing on basic needs and that would be the primary residence," he said.

'Our cottage was no longer there'

Jim Randall lives in Charlottetown but has owned a waterfront cottage in the New London Bay area for about a decade — it was severely damaged in the storm.

"We learned sort of like everyone else did in the early morning when the sun came up that there was a problem," he said.

"We had been told that our cottage was no longer there."

Randall said he is not entirely sure what took place the night Fiona stuck but all that is left now is the top half.

Randall said he understands the priority of relief funds must focus on people whose primary residences were damaged. Still, he is wondering if there will eventually be help for cottage owners like him who are also dealing with the destruction.

"It may not be as high a priority right now, but it's still out there," he said.

"There are a lot of cottage owners on this Island that are seniors and it's a major part of their lives in the past and it's a major part, potentially, of their financial savings and well-being."

'Thousands of assignments'

As the cleanup continues in the aftermath of Fiona, restoration companies that repair water and structural damage are busier than ever. In fact, some professionals estimate it will take years to fix all the damage to homes and businesses.

"We've taken on thousands of assignments," said Daniel Loosemore, chief of sales and operations for ServiceMaster Restore Canada.

"The urgency is really around helping the ... homeowners of the Island, the business owners trying to get back into business as early as possible and try to serve them in one of their greater times of need."

Loosemore said roughly 35 per cent of his company's network is currently on the Island doing restoration work. The priority right now is providing emergency services to prevent further damage to buildings.

"We see a lot of saggy ceilings and sometimes much worse than that," he said.

"We'll get water in the basement, water coming through so sometimes it can smell certainly, but it's truly our job to get in there and mitigate that further damage."

Once those emergency repairs are finished he said permanent repairs can start to take place.