City crews will work several long days dealing with wind damage
While the City of Medicine Hat was able to quickly get power to back to residents during a Wednesday wind storm, the work is far from over for electrical crews.
The city dealt with multiple power outages Wednesday in Medicine Hat, Redcliff and other surrounding areas. The outages were brought on by downed power lines, and trees falling into power lines.
“Around mid-morning customers started experiencing multiple momentary outages,” said electric distribution operations manager Jeff Sandford. “We had some customers experience longer outages, depending where they were.
“The longer outages ranged from an hour to four and a half hours.”
With power back on, residents do not need to worry but may see city crews working for weeks.
“We’re not even close to finished cleaning,” said Sandford. “We weathered the storm and made things safe. We did everything we could to get power back on quickly.
“We’re repairing damage around the city, but we’re finding new damage as we go.
“We’ll be working long days for at least the next two weeks to get a handle on the damage.”
Sandford says there is a lot to fixing power lines than lifting a pole back up and putting it in the ground.
“We need to make sure it’s safe to go back up — we can’t have anyone get hurt,” he said.
“It’s a long process and there’s a lot to it, but our crews are great at it and they work hard.
“If people see crews working, just give us space and don’t get too close.”
Sandford says residents are encouraged to contact the city if they see a downed power line or are experiencing power loss.