Sask. discovers damage from hurricane-force wind storm

Wind warnings are now over, but wind gusts hit hurricane force in some areas across Saskatchewan Tuesday night.

As the sun came up on Wednesday morning reports of damage started coming in from people in Saskatoon and Regina.

Texters to 980 CJME and 650 CKOM reported trees down, signs were blown over and debris lay scattered on roads and in yards.

Even the framing for a set of townhouses under construction in Regina’s Harbour Landing was knocked down by the wind.

Crazy photos submitted by Lisa Rawlings of the damage on Beacon Drive in Habour Landing. #yqr #skstorm #winddamage pic.twitter.com/a1Bog4SEhv

— Sam Maciag (@sammaciag) October 18, 2017

While Saskatoon police reported no calls Tuesday night due to the wind storm, officers were out Wednesday morning keeping the public away from downed power lines.

Police/fire guarding downed power line on Ash St. In #Yxe. @CKOMNews pic.twitter.com/ZK4vKvGcl8

— Chris Carr (@ChrisCarr15) October 18, 2017

Power outages caused by the wind storm are still being repaired in communities across the province.

Early in the morning more than 80 per cent of Moose Jaw was still without power.

Jonathan Tremblay speaks on behalf of SaskPower and he said there were 12,000 calls about outages and 50 per cent of the grid was affected by the wind storm.

In some cases SaskPower had to tell its crews to wait until morning to continue the repair work, for safety reasons.

Now SaskPower crews will have a big job ahead of them.

“All those trees on lines, all those broken poles and downed lines – it’s not easy going,” he said.

While sustained winds were around 70 km/hr Regina recorded wind gusts up to 119 km/hr which is equal to a category one hurricane.

Environment Canada Senior Climatologist David Phillips said Moose Jaw set a record for October with gusts of 131 km/hr.

Phillips said he was aghast to see how quickly this storm blew across the prairies.

“It just shocked our forecasters that it went from Alberta right through to Manitoba in five hours, I mean we talk about a clipper – this was like a rocket,” he said.

The worst of the wind storm is now over with winds dying down through the morning from 90 km/hr to 60 km/hr.

By mid-afternoon Phillips expects that the sustained winds will be down to 20 km/hr with no gusts.

SaskTel and Access Communications customers were also still being affected due to power outages in the province.

Sasktel celluar, home phone, internet and MaxTV services were being affected. SaskTel said that was expected to last until all businesses and homes had power restored.

Access customers in Yorkton, Melville, Kamsack, Canora, Norquay and areas throughout Regina are being affected as well.