SaskPower crews are still assessing the damage caused by Thursday night’s ice storm. but say around 22,000 customers are still without power as of 5 p.m Friday afternoon.

A release from SaskPower says a large challenge being faced by technicians is the ongoing risk of additional branches falling onto power lines so significant tree trimming is needed.  Some of the areas that were hit hard include Punnichy, Strasbourg, Fort Qu’Apppelle and Melville rural where power will not be restored Friday evening with no official estimated time of restoration being made because of the difficulties faced.

Since the beginning of the storm , the Outage Centre has fielded over 19,000 calls.

People are being reminded they are able to report an outage on our website at saskpower.com/reportoutage

SaskPower also wants to let customers know where repairs have been completed: there is a possibility that along with the primary lines being damaged by falling branches that the service lines connected to a customer’s home could also be damaged. If this is the case, customers will likely need to reach out to a local electrician to reconnect the service to the home. Our technicians will do their best to notify customers if this is the case.