SaskPower Crews Race Against the Clock After Saturday’s Storm

When the sky opened up on Saturday afternoon, most of us in Saskatchewan were busy grabbing an umbrella or pulling the car’s windshield wipers into action. By evening, the picture had shifted dramatically – hail the size of golf balls rattled rooftops in Kipling, gusty winds snapped tree limbs, and, as a result, entire neighbourhoods were plunged into darkness.

Within minutes of the first reports, SaskPower’s operations centre lit up with alerts. Dispatchers began routing crews to the hardest‑hit areas – from the outskirts of Regina to the rolling farms near Prince Albert, and even the smaller communities dotting the province’s south‑central corridor. By midnight, more than 1,200 outage calls had been logged.

“We’re seeing damage to overhead lines, several downed poles and a handful of transformer failures,” explained Lisa Murray, a senior spokesperson for SaskPower. “Our crews are on the road now, some working through the night, to get those lines cleared and power back on as quickly and safely as possible.”

People stuck in the cold are being reminded to stay inside, limit the use of candles, and keep refrigerator doors closed to preserve food. Neighbours are sharing generators and checking on seniors, a community‑spirit that seems to blossom whenever the lights go out.

Restoration isn’t a one‑size‑fits‑all process. In the city’s east side, crews have already replaced a broken transformer and reported that power should be back on within the next couple of hours. Out in the rural belt, however, the work is more complicated – tangled lines tangled in a chorus of felled trees mean some customers may be waiting longer, possibly into the next day.

Residents are encouraged to report outages through the SaskPower website or by calling 1‑800‑555‑1234. The utility also asks folks to avoid flooding the lines with calls about already‑reported outages, as that can slow down the dispatch process.

While the storm has moved on, its impact lingers. SaskPower expects to have a full picture of the damage by tomorrow morning and will issue more detailed updates on its outage map. In the meantime, the province’s electrical lifelines are being mended, one pole at a time, thanks to the tireless crews working through the night.