P.E.I.’s Emergency Measures Organization (EMO) has upgraded its activation status to level two, in advance of the arrival of hurricane Teddy.
As of Tuesday at 3 p.m., the emergency management body is considered to be at partial activation, the highest level reached when post-tropical storm Dorian buffeted the region last year.
At level two, the body is now working to share and co-ordinate information with different levels of government and developing plans to deal with gaps in the capabilities of first responders.
During a media briefing on Tuesday, Public Safety Minister Bloyce Thompson once again urged Islanders to consider their neighbours and to be prepared.
"The next 36 hours, there is going to be a lot of uncertainty," Thompson said.
"We don't quite know how long it's going to last or how severe (it will be), but we know that we are ready."
Provincial EMO coordinator Tanya Mullally said that, as of Tuesday afternoon, the Island was starting to experience rainfall and winds as part of a weather system ahead of the storm. She said there is a current rainfall warning for all of P.E.I. and said winds could reach up to 80 km/hr.
Mullally said the Canadian Hurricane Centre has advised that P.E.I. will experience a lull from the storm overnight.
"Don't take it for granted that as things calm down, that thing's over," Mullaly said.
"Tomorrow afternoon we (see) high winds again, up to 90 kilometres per hour potentially, along with continued heavy rainfall."
Mullally said she was hesitant to compare the storm to last year’s post-tropical Dorian, as Teddy is expected to be less intense but to be felt over a longer period of time.
She said the province has been working with utilities, such as Maritime Electric, Eastlink, Bell and Telus. She said the EMO has made arrangements to ensure utility crews from out-of-province are pre-positioned to reach P.E.I. in the coming days.
Mullally added that the EMO has taken extra steps to mitigate possible outages of cell phone infrastructure in the coming hours. In the immediate aftermath of post-tropical storm Dorian, some areas of the Island experienced the loss of cell phone connectivity, which caused complications for fire department personnel. Many of these departments rely upon cell signal-based apps to summon volunteers.
"The challenges that we had with Dorian with those communications towers, it was primarily around power,” Mullally said.
Communication towers had back-up generators, but some did not get power up quickly enough.
"What we did, actually this week, is we pre-identified those critical infrastructure sites, those cell tower sites and provided that information in advance to Maritime Electric so that they could then prioritize that reservation," Mullaly said.
A list of reception centres in local municipalities will be posted on the P.E.I. storm response webpage later on Tuesday, Mullally said. She urged Islanders to report power outages to Maritime Electric.
Mullally also urged Islanders to ensure new generators are installed correctly in order to avoid endangering utility crews in the coming days.
On Tuesday, Northumberland Ferries cancelled its crossings in anticipation of the storm. A nurse practitioner walk-in clinic in Morell was also closed in the afternoon.
During a COVID-19 media briefing earlier in the day, Health P.E.I. chief of nursing Marion Dowling said the drop-in testing site in Charlottetown at the Eastlink Centre has been moved indoors.
"The drop-in testing centre in Montague, which is an outdoor location, will be closed tomorrow to make sure that's safe for everyone who's there,” Dowling said.
