More than 22,000 P.E.I. homes are without power Tuesday as freezing rain continues to fall and icy roads make it difficult for work crews to get out and assess the damage.

Summerside's electrical utility is reporting a number of poles down.
(CBC)

Trees laden with ice are falling on power lines and in some cases the weight of the ice on the lines themselves is bringing them down.

Maritime Electric spokeswoman Kim Griffin said the latest outage Tuesday morning affects 12,000 customers in an area that starts just west of Summerside and extends to North Cape.

Maritime Electric reported more than 40 poles down before the latest problem. One of the difficulties the utility has had is getting out to survey the damage because ice on the roads is making travel difficult.

"There's significant ice on the road still remaining in some areas, and you know it's very slow going for our trucks, and the fact that we have to visually patrol by snowmobile or vehicles at this point because we can't get a helicopter out is certainly causing us some challenges," Griffin said.

Conditions vary widely across the province, Griffin said, with heavy ice in some areas and virtually none in others. There is no way of knowing at this point when electricity will be restored. Freezing drizzle is forecast to continue through Tuesday and end overnight.

Schools are closed across the Island as are many businesses. Transportation officials are urging motorists to use extreme caution.

Rain overnight in the eastern part of the province cleared much of the buildup from the freezing rain. The situation is worse in the western end of P.E.I., where freezing rain continued overnight.

Maritime Electric reports large outages in the New Annan and Hunter River areas as well as the west end of the Island. Summerside's electrical utility is also reporting poles down.