Work is underway to shift remaining customers to the new Muskrat Falls transmission line after severe weather, including snow and freezing rain, knocked out the old Churchill Falls line feeding the Happy Valley-Goose Bay region early Thursday morning.

About half of the community is still without power, with some on diesel generation while the switch is made.

Vice President of Operations with NL Hydro, Scott Crosbie says the Muskrat Falls line was there as a back-up, but their plans to switch customers over has been accelerated by the current outage.

It’s hoped power will be back to all affected customers by early this evening.