Wind wreaks havoc for power users in Cypress Hills, southwest Saskatchewan

Strong winds knocked out power to parts of Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park on Thursday as well as wide areas of deep southwest Saskatchewan.

A wind warning from Environment Canada predicted winds of up to 100 kilometres per hour during the day in the One-four, Foremost and Cypress Hills region, but easing in the evening hours.

Alberta Parks says that Hidden Valley Ski Resort lost power at about 10 a.m., and later was forced to close down to the public and refund tickets for the remainder of the day as the problem persisted past 2 p.m.

An update was expected later in the evening. Wind peaked in Medicine Hat in the afternoon at about 60 kms per hour, though most of the southern part of the province was under a wind advisory including Brooks, but not northern portions of Cypress County.

As well, SaskPower reported at 12:30 (CST) that power was lost for about an hour throughout the Shaunavon-Admiral region, including Eastend, Consul, Frontier and the surrounding rural areas. There was no stated cause released when problems were corrected at about 1:30 p.m. local time.