SaskPower continuing repairs in southeast; some customers to remain in the dark

And then there were 10.

In an update Wednesday afternoon, SaskPower said it expected to restore power to all but 10 customers in southeastern Saskatchewan by the end of the day. The Crown corporation said it would be contacting those customers to share the news.

Power went out in the region after a snowstorm hammered the area on the weekend. According to SaskPower, nearly 25,000 customers in the southeast were without electricity before it started its repairs.

During the day Tuesday, SaskPower said more than 3,100 crossarms, 600 power poles and 300 metres of power line had been sent to the region since the work began.

The company also said a damage assessment done by ground patrols and helicopters showed the extent of the storm’s impact.

High winds and heavy snow caused around 1,300 incidents of damage to power poles, power lines, crossarms and so forth. By comparison, the storm that hit the Maple Creek area earlier in April created about 300 incidents of damage.

Now that residential customers are getting their power back on, SaskPower said it will shift its focus to restoring power to oilfield customers and material salvage.

The company advised people there could be “short, planned outages” in the coming days as it works on the electrical system following the storm.