SASKATOON -- The mix of freezing rain, heavy winds and wet snow created several problems for SaskPower to deal with.

In total, 100,000 SaskPower customers were affected by the storm, and as of noon Thursday 78,000 were still without power.

“When it comes to an outage one of the areas we like to prioritize is essential services. So that’s your hospitals, your care homes, your police stations. After that it more of a ‘what’s safe to repair,’” said SaskPower spokesperson Scott McGregor.

4,073 SaskPower customers were still without power as of 5:30 am Friday, SaskPower reported.

The company’s website stated crews were working early Friday morning.

“Storms of this magnitude both in strength and how widespread it was, thankfully there very rare. So there is only so much you can do to prepare for a storm that this strong,” McGregor told CTV News.