Southeast sees mostly outage-free blizzard

Unlike the southwest which had widespread power outages following their winter storm, the southeast seems to be faring well.

Areas in Southwestern Saskatchewan, such as Maple Creek, took up to five and a half days and over 100 workers to have their power restored.

Meanwhile in the southeast population centers have remained powered throughout our blizzard, with only a few isolated farms experiencing outages.

Saskpower spokesperson Scott McGregor says that it seemed to be much better for power lines this time around.

"You know the blizzard that came through wasn't nearly as significant as many places were predicting it would be. Thankfully we didn't experience any widespread outages at all as a result of the storm. We did have a couple of isolated outages at some farms up in the Wapella area, but nothing widespread like the southwest saw the week prior."

McGregor says that the main cause of that slowdown can be chalked up to lower wind speeds from that blizzard.

"The wind speeds weren't nearly as high as they were predicted to be. It was cold enough that the snow didn't stick to everything, so that certainly helps with maintaining structural integrity. It was a lot of snow, yeah, and the winds were up there too, but nothing that caused any damage to our system."

As the blizzard deposited snow on roadways it quickly became impossible for crews to travel, but once they could, they got right to work fixing outages.

"Once conditions cleared up enough that our crews were able to drive safely," said McGregor, "We were able to get out there and solve those outages pretty quickly."

As another Colorado low system is expected near the end of the week, McGregor says it's important to remain cautious around power lines that could fall and to prepare for an outage just in case.