This downed tree near Spiritwood is one example of what SaskPower's crews were facing after the Jan. 13 extreme weather. SaskPower said outages similar to this might take a little longer to repair safely, so residents should be patient while crews work to bring their lights back on. (submitted photo/SaskPower)

By Angela Brown

Wild weather

SaskPower responded to over 72,000 calls for service following outages from Wednesday’s storm

Jan 15, 2021 | 5:53 PM

Wednesday evening’s wild weather resulted in many downed trees and power lines across the province, including some spots in the Battlefords area where winds gusted to 93 km/h.

SaskPower Media Relations spokesperson Scott McGregor said the Crown corporation received over 72,000 calls for service in the province.

“It was an extremely busy and exceptional 36 hours or so,” he said.

As of this morning there were about 4,200 customers still dealing with outages in the province but SaskPower was optimistic power would be restored today.

The main areas that were still without power were in the province’s Southwest and the Southeast regions.

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McGregor said there were some outages in the Battlefords area during the storm but most were only temporary, and did not continue overnight Jan. 13. Most outages in the West Central region have since been repaired.

He said the district manager for the area said all the work that needed to be done was “quite manageable.”

“There are pockets of individual customers, depending if there is a village or a farm that may have had a prolonged outage,” McGregor said. In terms of communities, he wasn’t aware of any that lost power overnight.

From the last update McGregor received he said “it looks like the North Battleford to Saskatoon area did not get hit nearly as hard as areas further south.”

Some trees were blown over in Spiritwood affecting power lines.

There were some outages reported in the Prince Albert and the Nipiwin area, but the North West region, including the St. Walburg, Meadow Lake area, and the West Central region were not significantly impacted overall.

Most power outages in the province were largely caused by the fierce winds.

“When you have wind speeds north of 100 km/h it wreaks havoc on all sorts of [things],” McGregor said.

What is known as line gallop was also an issue during the storm. When the wind blows power lines strongly enough, it causes them to swing and gallop in the air. The motion causes them to come in contact with one another and spark, which can result in power outages.

McGregor reminds people to continue to be careful around downed power lines. If they see a fallen line they should stay back at least 10 metres, and call SaskPower at 310-2220 for a technician to visit to make the area safe.

—

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW