Thousands of Nova Scotia Power customers are now in the dark as a rain and windstorm starts to batter the entire province.

Storm lead Pam Scully Porier tells Acadia News they do have their Emergency Operations Centre ready to stay focused on the task at hand.

“We bring in folks from across the business, representing customer care, representing operations and make sure that we have a centralized gathering to respond to outages,” says Scully-Porier.

She says their crews do stand down at 80 km/h winds.

Environment Canada says gusts up to 110 km/h are expected Friday night and into Saturday.

Meteorologist Ian Hubbard tells us the system is from a cold front moving in with significant winds ahead of it.

“Sometimes we’ll see some down branches, broken branches, that sort of thing, off of trees. Sometimes that can lead to some power disruptions,” says Hubbard.

“If any lines are hit, certainly any loose items tend to get blown around. Things like garbage bins or compost or recycle bins can get knocked over if they’re not too heavy.”

A rainfall warning is also in place for parts of central and northern Nova Scotia, with up to 40 mm that could fall.

The rain and mild temperatures could lead to a big snow melt.