An NB Power official says he is satisfied with the length of time it took to reconnect customers across the province after a wind storm hit New Brunswick on Thursday.

Brent Staeben, a utility spokesperson, said the storm was a hurricane-like event that left 39,000 customers without power at its peak.

Sixty-five crews from outside of the province were called in to help, including teams from Hydro-Quebec, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Saint John Energy and private contractors.

High winds ripped the roof off a dry cleaning company in Moncton last week. The high winds also knocked out power for almost 39,000 customers. (Jennifer Choi/CBC)

"As we all know, weather is changing and wind events are to be expected. And it's a big part of the utility's planning for the future to be ready for adapting to changing climate," he said.

Staeben said NB Power hasn't cut back on the number of crews it has to respond to widespread power outages, and it understands that reliability is a key expectation from customers.

"In an event like this people wonder, do we need more crews and things like that. This is an extraordinary event — you don't staff up for extraordinary events," he said.

It took up to four days to reconnect everyone. Staeben said given that crews had 90,000 customers without power during the storm, he is satisfied with NB Power's delivery of service.

'In an event like this people wonder do we need more crews and things like that. This is an extraordinary event — you don't staff up for extraordinary events' —Brent Staeben, NB Power spokesperson

Staeben said New Brunswick has one of the largest tree covers of any state or province in North America and it's causing challenges for the utility.

He said with more intense storms expected as a result of climate change it's something that has to be dealt with.

"It's really an interesting paradigm right now," Staeban said.

"We have all these trees close to so many power lines and nobody would like us to cut them down so there's this challenge of figuring out how we move forward and that's on our side. We have to have a good public education program about why it's important that we keep those limbs away."

Staeben said NB Power has invested more in trimming trees and limbs this year than it has in the past few years as a way to prepare for a future with more wind storms.