Freezing rain brings down trees in Melville and Yorkton, knocks out power in several communities

The cleanup is underway in Melville after freezing rain caused plenty of destruction in the community 150 kilometres northeast of Regina.

Meanwhile, power is out in several communities in the east and southeast areas of the province  because of the freezing rain.

Pictures from people in Melville show decimated trees, slick roads and mangled power lines.

Taken in Melville on May 21, 2021. Submitted by Lloyd Schmidt.

Melville resident Harley Hahn says he has never seen an icestorm quite like this.

“Everybody’s still trying to get out and see what the damage is looking like. City workers are out here like crazy, just going to go from there,” Hahn said.

“I actually have never seen it like this, not this thick, especially when it’s froze on.

“I know there’s going to be quite a bit of insurance claims if I’ve seen trees on top of vehicles and campers. This is a good one.”

Hahn said a tree in his front yard was one of the casualties of the storm, saying the weight of the ice was too much for it to handle.

“Everything is just covered, it’s starting to melt but there are so many trees down,” he said. “I have one huge tree that’s just been rooted right out of the ground.

“It’s definitely pretty crazy.”

On the City of Melville’s website, the city says firefighters, the RCMP and SaskPower are out in full swing aiding in the cleanup of the community.

Similar situation in Yorkton

Yorkton was also hit heavily by wind and freezing rain, which downed trees and powerlines.

Mayor Mitch Hippsley described the damage he woke up to Friday morning.

“It’s a surprise. We woke up this morning with a lot of broken trees all over the city. I drove around to see if it was just concentrated. It was not,” he explained.

He said the trees have been iced over, with lots of moisture. Add a bit of wind and that’s a formula for plenty of snapped-off branches.

SaskPower crews have been hard at work to restore power and city crews are cleaning up the branches.

“(There are) lots of power outages in the city … As they’re fixing one, they’re getting two more calls saying, ‘More lines (are) down.’ They are doing a wonderful job … but it’s not enough. Mother Nature’s taking its toll,” Hippsley continued.

He had heard reports of parked cars being crushed by fallen branches, and urged drivers to stay away from any road with trees.

Hippsley said he has never seen a weather event quite like this one in his city.

“This is unfortunate, but we’re all going to get through this. We just have to stay calm, we have to be smart and we just have to keep our eyes open,” he said. “Tomorrow will be another day.”

Posted to the City of Melville website following an ice storm in May 2021.

Taken in Melville on May 21, 2021. Submitted by Lloyd Schmidt.

Taken in Melville on May 21, 2021. Submitted by Lloyd Schmidt.