High winds, snow and rain sweep across P.E.I. Wednesday

The Confederation Bridge had reopened to all but high-sided vehicles Wednesday evening after a winter storm swept across the province, leaving thousands without power.

The storm forced the closure of the bridge to all traffic around noon Wednesday and it reopened with restrictions just after 5 p.m. The restrictions apply tohigh-sided vehicles, including vehicles towing trailers, trucks, buses and tractor trailers.

Maritime Electric reported as many as 5,500customers were without powerthrough the day.

The storm brought strongwinds to the Island, withbridge officials recordinggusts as highas 125 km/h over the Northumberland Strait early in the afternoon.

Environment Canada issued awind warningfor the entire province, but that ended Wednesday evening as the gusts dwindled.

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RCMP urged drivers to be cautiouson the roads after the messy mix of precipitation.Snow beganfalling around mid-morning and changed to rain in the afternoon.

Schools across the province, including UPEIand Holland College,closed Wednesday, as did provincial government offices in Prince County.

Schools in New Brunswick and dozens more in Nova Scotia were also closed for the day.

CBCP.E.I. meteorologistJay Scotland saidthe mix of snow, freezing rain and rainimpacted travel conditions, and a strong southeasterly wind was expected tocontinue into the early evening hours.

"The Island has seen peak gusts in the 70 to 100 km/h range, and this strong southeast wind will persist for the next few hours, before easing later this evening," Scotland said. "Until the wind subsides, additional outages are possible. Also, after a messy mix of snow, freezing rain, ice-pellets and now rain, road conditions are far from ideal, so please be cautious."

Maritime Electric's outage map reported just under 1,000 customers without power as of 8 p.m. Wednesday.

The utility's spokesperson, Kim Griffin, said most of the outages were related to heavy snow on tree branches causing downed lines.

"Lots of customers are even more concerned post-Fiona in terms of any outages so our crews are very sensitive to that and understand and are still trying to work as hard as they can to get the power back on," she said.

"It is reduced visibility right now, it's harder to find some of those trees but we're going to keep our contact centre open into the evening to help our customers if they need us, and our crews are staying out to restore power."

Customers can reach the contact centre at1-800-670-1012.