Power still out for 1,482 customers in southeast Saskatchewan after weekend storm

The majority of customers still without power in southeast Saskatchewan should have service restored Tuesday night, according to SaskPower.

SaskPower had initially reported that approximately 500 customers would be off overnight, but due to delays in repairs caused by extremely wet and muddy conditions, they said 1,482 residential and farm customers were without power Monday night.

SaskPower said it is working to determine estimated times when power will be restored for the customers still without power on Wednesday.

The customers have been without power since Saturday when a spring storm brought heavy, wet snow and high winds that snapped power poles and downed lines across a swath of the province from about 70 kilometres west of Estevan to Broadview in the north.

Originally about 24,000 customers had their power knocked out.

SaskPower spokesperson Scott McGregor previously said the Crown utility was bringing in about 200 workers from Prince Albert, Kinderlsey, Saskatoon and Tisdale on Tuesday to aid in the extensive repair work needed.

"Once we're able to get all of our residential and farm customers restored, the focus will then move on to the oilfield customers and the infrastructure that's not critical to public safety," McGregor said.

SaskPower said approximately 1,300 incidents of damage to a power pole, power line or crossarm were identified. In comparison, the storm that hit the Maple Creek area earlier in April had approximately 300 incidents of damage.

SaskPower said that as of 11:00 a.m. CST Tuesday, its outage centre had fielded more than 15,000 calls.

It said that since the beginning of the restoration effort, more than 3,100 crossarms, 600 power poles and 300 metres of power line had been dispatched to southeast Saskatchewan.