SaskPower employees were outside early Sunday morning to manage widespread power outages in southeastern Saskatchewan after a winter storm caused “significant damage” to energy infrastructure and forced the closure of several sections of the roadway in the area.
At 7:30 a.m. Sunday, power outages affected about 24,000 people on the province’s southern and eastern borders, SaskPower reported. The interruptions extend all the way north to Broadview and about 70 kilometers west of Estevan. Many communities are without electricity.
11:48 a.m.: effort, as work can only be completed when it is safe. Crews will begin assessing once conditions are safe. Additional teams are on their way from neighboring areas to help with the recovery. Due to the scale of the damage
– @SaskPower
SaskPower teams withdrew on Saturday night, despite numerous interruptions in the southeast corner due to strong winds and dangerous working conditions.
Around noon on Sunday, SaskPower released an update that said crews were conducting a comprehensive damage assessment, including by helicopter, but road conditions and strong gusts of wind slowed their progress and recovery efforts.
“Crews will begin assessing the damage once conditions are safe. Additional crews are on the way [to] neighboring areas to help the recovery, “said an update posted on Twitter.
It says gusts of wind and rain have caused widespread damage in the area and some customers may be without electricity for “a long time”.
Several communities in the southeastern region of Saskatchewan are experiencing power outages due to a winter storm that has passed through the area. (SaskPower)
West of Estevan, Emily Crooker hopes to see a SaskPower truck stop shortly after her husband Mark and their two daughters run out of power.
They live in an area where an electric pole burst and fell right outside, hanging a power line through their alley, but they may be able to get out of their neighbors’ alley if they allow it.
“The electric poles right in front of our house, three of them are broken – the tops are broken – and the power lines are down our driveway and into the ditch,” Krucker said, noting a pole in front of his neighbor’s house was half broken.
She believes she saw sparks coming from one, or that there was a rainbow. She said people should be careful with broken power lines and treat everyone as if they were alive.
Well, that’s your problem pic.twitter.com/YWBJddYs0O
– @paateach
Their electricity was turned off from about 8 pm on Saturday and was turned off shortly before noon on Sunday.
Krucker said she was concerned about the cold weather with an expected low of -15 in areas like Estevan on Sunday night, the family has a generator that they can turn on to heat the home or gain access to water – outside the buckets they have filled. with water if needed.
“So far we are doing quite well, if this lasts too long, then we may be a little worried,” she said.
On Saturday night, a woman said firefighters pulled a woman out of a broken elevator because electricity at the Estevan Hotel had stopped.
A witness said the mother had been locked in the elevator for just over an hour and her five-year-old son was waiting in the lobby.
“When the firefighters finally opened those doors and she came out, this little five-year-old boy came out – ‘Mom!’ – and I hugged her great,” said Jenny Hagen.
Fear !!!!! The excitement of that 5-year-old boy when his mother was released from the elevator after being trapped for more than an hour due to a power outage. Heartfelt little video and good for pic.twitter.com/M3b3IpGTVj
– @ LostInSk
The force at Affinity Place, home of Estevan Bruins, was powerless for part of Saturday night.
According to Bruins’ Twitter, the SJHL team’s match against Flin Flon Bombers was almost postponed for Sunday due to a power outage.
At about 9 p.m., the team said power was restored after the initial shutdown at about 7 p.m.
He added that if the power goes out again, the match will be postponed to Sunday afternoon.
SaskTel said in a statement that services for some residents of the southeast have fallen and may fall more as the spare battery runs out.
Communities in and around Arcola, Carlyle, Kisbey, Kenosee Lake, Manor and Redvers have no internet, wireless or landline services and no estimated time to complete repairs.
Roads are closed near the Manitoba border
Several inter-provincial border ports near Manitoba were closed on Sunday due to poor driving conditions, according to the Saskatchewan Highway Hotline.
Highway 8, running parallel to the Manitoba border, is closed north of Moosomin. Several other sections it crosses, including Highways 1, 48 and 308, are closed to traffic on the eastern border due to poor winter driving conditions.
The Saskatchewan Highway Hotline shows that several travel routes in the southeastern region of the province are closed to travel due to poor winter driving conditions. (Saskatchewan Highway Hotline)
Canada’s environment lifted winter storm warnings Sunday morning for three regions in the southeast corner of the province. They were introduced on Saturday as the region prepared for a low-level Colorado crossing to Manitoba.
Chris Stummers, a senior meteorologist at Environment Canada, said Saskatchewan still has a very narrow strip of light snow.
“The worst is over, there are still some remains … mostly near the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border at the moment, but that’s pretty easy,” he said.
Stummers said he did not know how much snow had accumulated in the communities because he had not yet received any signals.
He also said it was unlikely that there would be a low level of Colorado to cross the province at this time of year, although two are rarer.
However, the cold snap that hit the southeastern prairies could break records on Sunday night. In Estevan the low Sunday night is -15.
“The normal low for this time of year is about 1, so we’re looking at temperatures about 15 degrees below normal,” he said.
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