80,000 residents still without power after extreme wind

SaskPower has crews out all over the province to get power restored.

The extreme winds and snow that hit Saskatchewan on Wednesday night through to Thursday morning caused outages in well over 100 communities. As of 11 a.m., the Crown power company was aware of around 80,000 customers still without power service, according to a media release.

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.

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.