CMP trucks wait to cross the Canadian border at Calais. Photo courtesy of Central Maine Powerasw

Several Central Maine Power crews departed Bangor on Sunday night to help the Canadian Maritimes restore power to hundreds of thousands who lost electricity Saturday when Hurricane Fiona made landfall in Nova Scotia.

CMP said in a release that it is sending 16 two-person crews, including 14 bucket trucks and two digger trucks, at the request of Nova Scotia Power. CMP is also assigning 10 support personnel. The storm left more than a half million Canadians without power.

“We know how tough conditions like that can be on utility workers and their customers,” Joe Purington, CMP’s president, said in a statement. “This was an historic storm that battered Canada’s Atlantic Coast. I believe it’s important for utility companies to help their neighbors in times of crisis.”

The Canadian Hurricane Center said it had recorded the lowest barometric pressure ever for a storm making landfall in eastern Nova Scotia, and wind speeds reached 100 mph.

Fiona caused extensive damage, and the province reported Sunday that more than 80 percent of its electricity customers were without power. Widespread outages were also being reported on Prince Edward Island and in New Brunswick. In some of the hardest hit regions, outages could last for days, the The Washington Post reported.

The storm pummeled coastal towns Saturday morning, sweeping away homes and roofs, uprooting trees, flooding roads, downing power lines and clogging streets with debris, the Post reported. Two people were pulled into ocean. One was rescued while the second has not been found.

CMP has an agreement with the North Atlantic Mutual Aid Group that stipulates all costs incurred by CMP crews helping restore power will be covered by the Aid Group.