A thunderstorm late Wednesday night left many residents in Westlock and some of its surrounding communities in the dark.
Roughly 1,200 Fortis Alberta customers reported power outages due to “unusual” summer weather conditions and several small corners of Westlock were still experiencing problems until noon on June 10, according to Fortis Alberta’s spokesperson Jennifer MacGowan.
“The biggest single hit area was Westlock and area, so the county would’ve been the hardest hit area and we did have to mobilize the hardest hit area to help,” said MacGown. “They were working on it again (Thursday).”
She added that Fortis Alberta work crews made repairs to lines, poles and transformers to restore power for as many customers as soon as the storm let up.
“Safety first,” she said confidently.
She added the power was turned back on for most homes around midnight, but noted that was not the case for the entire town and county. MacGowan noted roughly 25 homes needed reconstruction projects which continued until about noon on Thursday.
“We get the majority of power outages to customers just after midnight,” she said.
“There were about 25 customers that didn’t get power back until sometime (Thursday) because we would’ve had to rebuild pole and wire for them. If you noticed any problems after that, it would’ve been because our crews were out there working to fix the problems,” MacGowan explained.
In addition, the storm also caused minor damage in Dapp.
“It hasn’t been too bad, but we did get two call outs,” said county fire chief John Biro, noting a poplar tree made contact with a power line near a Dapp home around midnight last Thursday. “It was trying to burn through the tree.”
