Power still out in many parts of eastern Saskatchewan

The power is out across much of eastern Saskatchewan.

Starting early Friday morning, SaskPower’s outage map covered a large area.

As of Friday afternoon, it started east of Regina in the Fort Qu’Appelle area, then stretched to the Manitoba border. The outages also extended north from Grenfell and Broadview all the way to Preeceville.

Yorkton and Estevan were affected as well.

Scott McGregor, media relations consultant for SaskPower, said fallen trees from wind and freezing rain are to blame.

“(They’re) coming down and snapping under the weight of the freezing rain that we received last night. When these tree branches come down, they’re coming on top of our lines,” he explained.

As of noon Friday, more than 27,000 buildings in the area were without power.

McGregor said there isn’t an estimated timeline for electricity to come back just yet.

“Right now, the priority is assessing all of the damage … and clearing trees where we can, where it’s safe to do so,” he said.

Because trees continue to fall, it’s difficult for crews to keep up with repairs.

“With our crews going out and removing a branch from a line or repairing a line, they drive away and another one comes down on top of the line again,” McGregor said.

“There are a lot of trees with a lot of ice on them, so it’s kind of a guessing game as to when the branches will snap and where they’re going to come down. Our crews are working as hard as they can to assess and repair the damage whenever it’s safe to do so, but it has proven to be a bit difficult.”

He also reminded people living in the area about downed powerlines, saying to keep their distance and call SaskPower if they come across one.