Power restored to all Red Deer homes following windstorm
Five days after a windstorm pummeled Red Deer with winds of more than 110 km/h, power has been restored to the entire city and a state of local emergency has been lifted, officials said.
Tara Shand, a public information officer with the City of Red Deer, said that as far as they know, power has been restored to every home affected by the storm.
"There may be, as there always can be, some pockets of the area or some scattered houses that are without power that we don't know about," Shand told CBC News Saturday.
"If you currently don't have power, you need to phone into our call centre and let us know. Because as it stands right now, the city is fully restored."
As many as 35 per cent of homes in the city were without power after the storm, which downed 15 power lines and damaged 40 power poles throughout the city.
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City officials, along with some assistance from the City of Edmonton, worked to clean up the mess and restore power.
On Friday, officials estimated power would be restored to all residents within two days. Shand said crews were a bit ahead of schedule.
"We certainly had crews working around the clock, 24/7, to restore power across the city," she said.
Friends and family helped too
But while crews deserve much of the credit for getting the entire city's power grid back up and running, Shand said the community deserves some props too.
"When our crews worked extremely hard and we're certainly very proud of that, we're also enormously proud of our community and all of the work that they have been doing," she said.
Shand said the city is encouraging residents to share stories of their neighbours, friends and family helping each other fout in the immediate aftermath of the windstorm.
"We really just want to give a big shoutout to our community," she said. "We have people who always come together to support each other. It's just magnified in circumstances like this."
Residents can share their story on the City of Red Deer's Facebook page or by emailing communications@reddeer.ca.
