As of noon on Sunday, about 8,000 SaskPower customers were without power
Parts of Saskatchewan had bad weather on Canada Day because of a storm.
Dan Fulton, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, says the weather was caused by a low pressure system that began in Alberta. Saturday afternoon in Western Central Saskatchewan, there was a severe thunderstorm warning because of the weather.
“We heard from a lot of people that some pretty big hail, the size of golf balls, fell there,” Fulton said.
“As that system moved through, we also got some strong gusts of wind.”
Fulton said that gusts of wind were faster than 100 km/h east of Prince Albert, 97 km/h in North Battleford, and 87 km/h in Saskatoon.
Fulton also said that the low pressure system caused a tornado in central Alberta, which damaged homes and killed animals.
“Rough weather is pretty common right now in the Prairies, so the storm wasn’t unusual,” Fulton said.
“It’s just a good thing that it didn’t do more damage last night in Saskatchewan, because there was a lot of potential for that to happen.”
Fulton also said that the storm brought down trees and cut off power in some parts of Saskatchewan. He said that the storm could cause some damage to buildings and roads in some parts of the province.
There were power outages all over the province
As of noon on Sunday, about 8,000 SaskPower customers did not have electricity.
Scott McGregor, a spokesman for SaskPower, says that 20,000 customers were without power at the height of the storm.
“We have crews working in all the affected districts,” said Scott McGregor, a spokesman for SaskPower. “So, depending on where the customers are, a good number of them should be back on by tonight.”
McGregor said that there is no estimate yet for when power will be back on in the Nipawin area, where about 5,000 customers are without power.
He also said that the storm’s wide reach is making it hard for SaskPower to talk to customers over the phone.
“Since the storms began last night, over 13,000 people have called our outage center,” McGregor said. “Because of how many calls our system can handle and how many people can answer those calls, the wait time might be a little bit longer.”
Janelle Barkman lives near Warman, Saskatchewan, on an anchorage. Her family of seven has been without power for about 14 hours. She hasn’t been able to get in touch with SaskPower, so she doesn’t know when they’ll get it back.
“It’s frustrating to not be able to know what time it is,” says Barkman. “I’ve been sitting in my car charging my phone because I don’t know how else to do it, and you need your phone because we live in a rural area and they need to call you.”
“We often have to tell people where to go and show them the way back.”
Barkman says she is grateful for all the work SaskPower is doing to get power back on in the province, but she would like better communication because she is worried about the food in her fridge and freezer and when they will be able to use their toilets again.
McGregor says that people should report outages online or keep calling because it’s important for SaskPower to know about all the outages so it can fix the power for everyone.
He also said that if anyone saw downed power lines or broken infrastructure, they should stay back and call SaskPower right away.
“It was brutal
John Brady McDonald was driving to pick up his daughters from work at a restaurant in Christopher Lake, which is about 40 kilometers north of Prince Albert, on Saturday evening when he noticed that the sky was getting darker.
He says that the weather got really bad as they drove back from the restaurant.
McDonald said, “It looked like a movie from the Great Depression. There was a big wall of dust coming in, the sky went dark, and the wind didn’t stop for about five or six minutes.”
“Tree branches were falling, and we saw the power go out. Sand was hitting the car, and it felt like I had my hand in a sand blaster when I put my hand out the window.”
McDonald says that these strong storms are happening more often because of climate change.He pointed out that hail from a storm this week had hurt his garden.
“My biggest worry is that we’ll get used to this, and we won’t want to keep working for a better and healthier world.”
Some parts of Saskatchewan are likely to keep getting bad weather. The La Loche area is under a rain warning because 60 millimeters of rain are expected by Monday morning.