Residents power through as outages hit province
Widespread problems wrap around — but don’t affect — Saskatoon
REGINA With a massive power outage hitting parts of the province Tuesday, including a large span of Regina, it was a tough day to get warm, get gas, get moving or even to get an education.
Some Regina schools sent students home, the University of Regina cancelled classes, traffic became snarled at intersections rendered four-way crossings, shops shut their doors, Regina City Hall cancelled its celebration to switch on Christmas lights, and even Saskpower’s head office in the heart of Regina’s downtown was in the dark when some force turned out the lights.
Still, some residents preferred to look on the bright side: “Thanks skp. A day off with pay!” read a Facebook post by Samantha Johnson.
Many windows on businesses, including Casino Regina, sported closed signs and apologies.
“Shopping in the dark is kind of fantastic,” tweeted Destiny Mcpeek.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Crown corporation, with crews even taking to helicopters to assess the problem, was still working to pinpoint the exact cause, but Premier Scott Moe said in a statement that Boundary, Shand and Poplar River power stations all tripped Tuesday morning.
Saskpower spokesman Jordan Jackle explained at a news conference that “if the system senses instability, it will sometimes cause units like that to trip.”
Since the weekend, heavy frost, caused by fog, mist and cloudy weather, has been wreaking havoc with power lines, causing sagging and breaks, which can also bring down poles. Saskpower advised people to stay at least 10 metres away, and not to try removing the frost themselves. If someone is in danger, call 911. Otherwise, Saskpower’s outage line is 306-3102220.
“What we need is a good, sunny day that will burn off the majority of that frost,” Jackle said.
The outage hit around 9 a.m., cutting power to a wide swath of the south and central parts of the province, stretching from Swift Current to Humboldt to the U.S. border and points in between, including Moose Jaw and Estevan. Outages also extended up the eastern side of the province, wrapping around — but not including — Saskatoon.
In Regina, neighbourhoods in the far southeast, northwest and southwest went about their business, while thousands in other areas, including the downtown, went without power for hours.
By the mid-afternoon, various points were slowly coming back up, and Saskpower hoped to have other areas restored as crews worked into the evening. However, Saskpower did warn that high winds in the weather forecast for some areas could complicate those efforts.
Regina Mayor Michael Fougere expressed the sentiment of many posters to social media sites.
“The Saskpower staff have done a wonderful job of getting service back up across the province,” Fougere told an afternoon news conference.
Unable to provide an exact number Tuesday afternoon, Jackle could only say affected customers numbered in the “tens of thousands.” Between 9 and 11 a.m. Tuesday, the outage call centre fielded some 20,000 calls — equal to all of the calls during the month of November. Jackle said hundreds of Saskpower employees worked on a solution.
Duane Mckay, the province’s commissioner of emergency management and fire safety, urged residents without power to take care when using alternative heat and electrical sources.
“All too often in situations like this we hear of people doing things that will increase the risk to them and those are really centred around putting out generators or heating their homes with propane or camp stoves and those types of things,” he said. “While that may give you heat, over a period of time it also produces carbon monoxide and you can really be harmed by that.”
Anyone resorting to a generator is advised to use a transfer switch. Without one, the generator will feed power back into the lines, which creates a hazard for Saskpower employees working to restore the power.
Many of Regina’s essential services, including police, fire, hospitals and EMS, switched to backup power. “Our whole network is still up, it’s just not every computer in the building has access to it. So, for instance, our officers, our call-takers were still taking calls, dispatching calls because all of that’s on full backup,” Regina police spokeswoman Elizabeth Popowich said.
Late Tuesday afternoon, Regina fire Chief Layne Jackson said contingency plans were being made just in case the outage proved more long-term, but power in much of the city was working by early evening.
Surprisingly, the city didn’t see a dramatic spike in collisions despite some of the jams with out-of-commission traffic lights, although officers reported some people weren’t obeying the four-way-stop rule.
“Some people are choosing not to remember their basic Driving 101 skills,” Popowich said.
Fougere stressed that the city’s water and waste water systems remained operable throughout. “We have staff in our emergency organizations that have been working throughout the day to evaluate city assets and making sure services are available, most importantly water and waste water,” he said. Reporting by Mark Melnychuk, Arthur White-crummey,
Barb Pacholik, Austin M. Davis and Heather Polischuk
The Saskpower staff have done a wonderful job of getting service back up across the province.