37,000 residents still without power after extreme wind

SaskPower has crews out all over the province to get power restored, but several areas will remain without it overnight.

The extreme winds and snow that hit Saskatchewan on Wednesday night through to Thursday morning caused outages in well over 100 communities. As of 6 p.m., the Crown power company was aware of 321 distinct outages leaving around 37,000 customers still without power service, according to a media release. Conditions in these areas are still unsafe for crews.

The release specified that areas around Saskatchewan Landing, Kyle and other rural areas south of Elrose will remain without power overnight, while the Stoughton and Midale areas are estimated to see it turned back on around midnight. Around 2,000 customers in and around Weyburn may see power come back Thursday evening.

Power was restored in some areas Wednesday night, but in many places roads were completely impassable and weather too severe for the crews to work safely.

“Nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and our employees,” said Mike Marsh, the president and CEO of SaskPower, in a news release. “We are doing everything we can to get the lights back on as quickly as possible without jeopardizing the safety of our crews.”

The media release noted SaskPower prioritizes restoring power for essential services like hospitals and medical facilities, care homes, and police and fire stations.

Customers who see a downed power line or experience an outage should make sure to report them to SaskPower.

Downed power lines may not appear to be electrified, but they can be — the release asks anyone who comes across a downed line to keep their distance and call 310-2220 or 911 to report it. In the span of about 30 hours from Tuesday morning to Wednesday afternoon, the company had 63,000 calls.

Warman one community without power

Parts of Warman were left without power overnight.

Warman Fire Department Deputy Chief Kevin Schwartz says many parts of the city got power back before a main line in the southeast part of the city caught fire Thursday.

“It broke just from the wind along with the snow and ice and then basically started arcing and that’s where the trees caught on fire,” he said.

Schwartz says crews responded to the fire shortly after 8:30 a.m., just behind the Thomas Cook and the Warman Hotel.

On scene at a power line fire. Fire knocked SE main line out, much of Warman will be without power until Repaired by the folks @SaskPower who are relentlessly fighting this storms effects. pic.twitter.com/cNbQhQWq24

— Warman Fire Rescue (@WarmanFire) January 14, 2021

Some areas in Warman are still without power until the power line can be fixed.

SaskTel landlines, wireless out in western, central Sask.

The widespread power outages are causing problems for SaskTel.

The Crown corporation said there is limited service in many communities, and more services are expected to fail as backup power is depleted, according to a news release.

As of 9 a.m. Thursday, customers in Beechy, Herschel, Plenty and Dodsland were without landline phone service.

Cell service was unavailable in rural areas east and west of Saskatoon, Lucky Lake, Meacham, Warman and Danielson.

Some SaskTel maxTV and internet customers in Moose Jaw, Weyburn and Estevan also were told to expect outages.

SaskTel said it is unable to provide an estimated time of return for services.

With backup batteries engaging due to the outages, SaskTel is expecting battery life to be depleted as the power outages continue.

Generators are being connected to network sites and “high priority” wireless sites to keep operations as normal as possible.