‘Camping without the tent’: Rural Sask. residents spend days without power after storms

He said the greatest disappointment over the past few days has been a lack of communication from SaskPower.

“The night after the storm, or the day after the storm, it was reported not until 3 o’clock that crews were taking a look, and then reports that they were stopping work because of the time,” he said.

Drinkwater said the last he heard was that SaskPower workers were still looking for the cause of the outage.

Drinkwater said his wife called SaskPower and learned that more than 60 homes in the area are still without power, but no time frame was given for when it could be restored. Power in Codette, he said, was restored late on Monday afternoon.

“It’s disturbing, too, that, you know, after three days, they still have been unable to assess the underground power service interruption,” he said.

He said that a generator running at a community hall in the area has allowed people without power to go inside and wash up, access water, charge their phones and batteries and more. He said he and his wife have been buying plenty of bottled water.

It’s been frustrating, Drinkwater said.

“I guess if we knew ahead of time, we could have made some arrangements,” he said.

Drinkwater is also dealing with damage from the storm, including downed trees with their roots out. He said the entire area was affected.

“It’s pretty devastating to the to the vegetation, particularly, and a lot of the buildings locally were protected,” he shared. “There was one fella close just outside of Codette. He lost part of his roof and some shingles there, but he’s OK.”

Drinkwater said the storm on Saturday was unlike anything he had seen before. He said he saw a low-hanging cloud system moving in while he was watching the bright-pink sunset.

“As the lightning started, it was lighting up the sky in the background with a pink hue, which is something we never seen before,” he recalled.

“As we watched that, it was still relatively calm, rain sporadic, but then the wind shifted and the cloud formations changed and you could see them moving, and the lightning was just constant flash of lights right across the sky. And then the wind picked up, and we couldn’t see out in front of our deck for 10 feet.

“It was crazy.”

Drinkwater said his family grabbed their pets and went to the basement to take shelter.

Emerging in the aftermath, he said his family was fortunate to only suffer losses of trees, but a lot of manual labour has been required to clean up their yard, and the inconvenience of having a generator running constantly over the past few days has negated the peace and quiet that was the reason they moved to the country in the first place.

The couple tried to purchase a second generator to help restore more of their amenities, only to find the stores near them were sold out.

While they continue to wait for power to be restored, Drinkwater said his family’s next step will likely be to book a hotel room so they can properly clean up.

“It really would be nice to take a long, hot shower,” he said.

Despite the disruption to their lives, Drinkwater said there’s been plenty of support from the community, with those still without power bonding at the community hall and starting to recognize familiar faces.

He said everyone is very grateful for the work SaskPower has done.

“They’ve been out dealing with like a big mess with trees toppling on top of the power lines, so it’s it’s been a really big job,” Drinkwater acknowledged.

He’s looking forward to life returning to normal, and a return of conveniences like flushing the toilet and using his own shower again.

“All those things you really take for granted,” he said.

On Tuesday, SaskPower said electricity had been restored to most customers affected by the severe weather that moved through the northeastern part of the province, but hundreds were still waiting for service.

SaskPower spokesperson Joel Cherry said about 540 customers remained without power, including approximately 50 in the Melfort area, 140 around Hudson Bay and 341 in the Nipawin region.

“We have restored power to the majority of the customers who were affected in the northeast part of the province,” Cherry said.

The Crown corporation had no estimate for restoration for the remaining outage, but Cherry said crews expect to reconnect most customers by the end of the day on Tuesday.

According to Cherry, workers are dealing with extensive damage from several waves of severe weather rather than a single, isolated storm.

“There’s a lot of trees on lines and lines down, a lot of damage to our equipment because of the high winds that occurred in that area,” he said.

Dangerous conditions also forced crews to suspend some work overnight.

“In some cases, crews had to shut down at night and come back early in the morning to resume repairs so they could do so safely,” Cherry said.

He said the storm has led to one of the utility’s largest responses in recent years.

“It’s probably the most significant we’ve seen in at least three or four years,” Cherry said.

SaskPower also reminded customers to report outages if the outage map indicates an area has been restored, but their property remains without electricity, as localized damage could still be affecting individual homes or lines.

Cherry also warned people to remain at least 10 meters away from downed power lines or trees resting on electrical equipment.

“Even if the line isn’t sparking or giving a visible indication that it’s energized, it very well could be, and it’s very dangerous,” he said.

The Village of Aylsham declared a state of emergency on Tuesday as well, “due to the significant impacts” of the storm, the village posted on social media.

Residents were asked to avoid unnecessary travel in the impacted areas, not use municipal water for drinking or household purposes and stay clear of any downed powerlines.

–with files from 980 CJME’s Abby Zieverink and Jacob Bamhour and paNOW’s Susan McNeil

by Libby Gray/CKOM

‘Camping without the tent’: Rural Sask. residents spend days without power after storms

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