Power outages pile up for SaskPower as storm takes hold

It didn’t take long for Monday’s storm to cause damage to Saskatchewan’s power grid.

As of 9 a.m., nearly 4,500 SaskPower customers were off line due to power lines that were damaged by the storm. The bulk of the outages are in west-central areas around Kindersley, Kerrobert, Delisle and Perdue, as well as north of Meadow Lake and the Big River area.

Just before noon, the power went out in Saskatoon’s University Heights neighbourhood.

SaskPower spokesperson Scott McGregor said customers should be prepared to be without electricity until the weather improves.

“With winds this high it’s hard for many repairs to take place for safety reasons. We can’t go up in a bucket if the wind is blowing 100 kilometres an hour,” he said.

“The most common cause of outages is from line gallop. Basically you see the power lines swing in the wind. Sometimes they come into contact with each other and that causes an outage. Other times it’s just the sheer force of the wind that damages the infrastructure and brings lines down.”

McGregor recommends staying at least 1o metres back from a downed power line and reporting damage by calling the outage centre at 310-2220.