Crews from SaskPower are working across the province to restore power after the extreme winds caused widespread outages yesterday and overnight.

Some customers were able to have the power restored yesterday evening, but the conditions were too severe for crews to work safely in some areas, resulting in work having to wait until this morning. SaskPower crews have been back to work this morning, and as of 11:00 a.m., there were roughly 80,000 customers in more than 100 communities without power.

“Nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and our employees,” said SaskPower President & CEO Mike Marsh. “We are doing everything we can to get the lights back on as quickly as possible without jeopardizing the safety of our crews.”

In the release, SaskPower stated they prioritize restoring power to essential services such as medical facilities, care homes, and police and fire stations and then begin to focus on restoring power to as many customers as possible, as quickly as possible. 

If you experience an outage or see a downed power line or other public safety issues related to power equipment, please contact our 24-hour Outage Centre at 310-2220. It is critical to stay away from any downed power lines. These may appear as if they are not conducting electricity, but they may still be live. If you spot one, stay at least 10 metres away and call our outage line or 911 so we can make it safe as soon as possible.

SaskPower is also reminding customers never to operate a generator in a house, garage or enclosed building. Doing so will create the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.