(Angie Rolheiser/northeastNOW staff)

By Angie Rolheiser

Power outage

Over 1,300 customers still without power west of Melfort

Nov 17, 2021 | 3:37 PM

Power is still out in St. Brieux and James Smith Cree Nation after a widespread outage was caused by the recent winter storm.

The outage left over 2,100 customers in the dark late yesterday afternoon which continued overnight and into today in St. Brieux, Kinistino, and James Smith Cree Nation areas.

SaskPower media relations Joel Cherry told northeastNOW the widespread outage was caused by line galloping.

“The line bounces up and down and causes it to break the wood cross arms on the structures and come into contact with other parts of the structure which cause it to be damaged and short out,” Cherry said.

Crews are waiting for the wind to die down so they can make repairs safely.

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“We can’t do it while there are really high winds because the lines are still thrashing around,” Cherry said. “The wind is starting to die down somewhat, at least enough that we can do the work, once we can start it should only take a few hours before power is restored.”

Currently, there is an estimated restore time of 7 p.m. for the 1,300 customers still without power in the St. Brieux and James Smith Cree Nation areas.

Power was restored this afternoon in Kinistino through rerouting power through different lines.

“We don’t want to leave people off overnight, the people in that area were off last night and we appreciate everyone’s patience as we do this work,” Cherry said.

The outage also led to the St. Brieux and Kinistino schools cancelling classes for the day. The plan is to resume classes as normal tomorrow.

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angie.rolheiser@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @Angie_Rolheiser