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Efforts to restore power continue in wake of snowstorm

Oct 3, 2017 | 3:31 PM

SOUTHERN AB – Roughly 3,200 Fortis Alberta customers remain in the dark in parts of southern Alberta, as the company pushes to restore power following Monday’s (Oct. 2) snowstorm.

Alana Antonelli with Fortis noted that 10,000 customers were without power overnight, as the storm prevented them from acting sooner.

“Not only is electricity a life and death situation to be working around, so are some of the road conditions that we were experiencing last night. So, those two things combined are not a good combination,” explained Antonelli. “Typically, we are out in the night restoring power, but with last night’s storm, it just was not safe, there were road closures and that sort of thing. So, for the safety of the public and for our employees, we just could not be restoring power throughout the night.”

Antonelli says they started restoration efforts at first light Tuesday morning (Oct. 3), and that most customers should be back online relatively soon.

“We’ve brought in lots of crews from other parts of the province to help with restoration and we have special equipment where needed,” she stated. “We will have most customers on by the end of the day. The times will vary, some will be later, so there will be some 10 o’clock at night restoration times.”

She acknowledged that a few customers may be without power for a second straight night, but said Fortis will be contacting those individuals by phone to let them know.

For those waiting and looking for information on their particular area, she recommended they check out outage map on the Fortis website, which is continually being updated.

Customers can also call 310-WIRE (9473), 24 hours a day, seven days a week if they have any questions about their power.