SaskPower officials say they have identified the reason for a power outage on Friday that stretched across north-west Saskatchewan, from Meadow Lake all the way to Spiritwood.
The outage affected 20,000 customers from areas like Glaslyn, Buffalo Narrows, Turtleford, Rapidview, Dore Lake, and Paradise Hill.
It was first reported after 10:30 Friday morning and it was expected power would be restored in all areas by 5 p.m.
Officials with SaskPower say one of their airplanes found the cause of the outage while patrolling 250 km of transmission line that stretched from North Battleford to Beauval; a pole had splintered due to frost, broken off and shorted the power line.
SaskPower has fielded several thousand phone calls related to the outage.
The outage led to the closure of Meadow Lake’s Associated Medical Clinic for the day, and put a damper on businesses in Meadow Lake that had Black Friday sales planned.