Thousands of Sask. residents cleaning up after weekend storm

Thousands of Saskatchewan residents were left without power after an intense storm that swept through the province Saturday evening.

At the height of the storm, 20,000 homes did not have power, and about 2,000 homes were still without power on Tuesday - most caused by a downed power line near Nipawin.

“That outage on that transmission line is affecting 1,471 customers, so once we get that turned back on, hopefully, we'll be able to get most of those customers back on,” Scott McGregor, a spokesperson with SaskPower said.

The structure that holds the power line is situated in deep water and is “very difficult to access”.

“It's too deep for any of our equipment to go into unless it's a boat,” McGregor said.

He told CTV News that crews were brought in from different areas to help with restoration efforts.

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During the storm, the town of Nipawin saw the most wind, with gusts up to 119 km/h, according to Natalie Hasell, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.

“There could have been a risk of a tornado, and it happens that many of our severe storms are capable of producing tornadoes,” Hasell said.

She said as far as she knows this weather was a plough wind and not the result of a tornado.

“However, strong straight-line winds cause similar damage sometimes, and sometimes cause damage that’s much more widespread,” Hasell said.

Meanwhile, the long weekend was cut short for those in Waskesiu, as trees blocked roadways and damaged property.

“It was a big mess out there with the trees falling on campers. Most of our calls were dealing with making sure the team was safe where the power lines were down,” Chief Les Karpluk, Waskesiu Fire Department said.

In Nipawin, the sounds of chainsaws roar through the town from day to night, according to one resident.

“You can see the town workers and everybody helping each other out trying to get the mess cleaned up, but it's going to be a while,” Brenda Olde said.

On Wednesday, SaskPower said they had been able to restore electricity to most of the homes.