Merrick Brown, director of emergency management, and Grayson Mauch, incident commander provide an update on Monday's storm at a media conference that saw thousands without power (Tiffany Goodwein/ CHATNEWSToday)

By Tiffany Goodwein

Approximately 100 residents still without power

Jul 19, 2022 | 6:07 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – City crews are working diligently to clean up after Monday’s windstorm that toppled trees, wrecked homes and knocked out power to thousands of residents.

Among the buildings that suffered outages yesterday are the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital and airport. But the city said backup generators helped both buildings to stay operational.

The strong winds, which clocked in at around 100 kilometres per hour, also took out a total of 71 power poles that the city said are damaged beyond repair.

Speaking at a press conference Tuesday afternoon, city officials confirmed an estimated 100 people are still without power.

IN THE COMMUNITY

Medicine Hat's Mustard Seed adding new shelter spaces at Alberta government's request

11h ago

HOLIDAYS

Medicine Hat Kiwanis hosting Christmas dinner, applications due Friday

17h ago

IN THE COMMUNITY

'Compassionate Friends' offer peer support for bereaved in Medicine Hat

Dec 11, 2024

A majority of the residents suffering outages right now live in Redcliff, northeast Medicine Hat and portions of Cypress County. An exact time power will be restored is still not known at this point, but the city said crews will be working throughout the evening and week.

The mystery of unexplained power outages in the rural area west of Medicine Hat may have been solved.

The city said crews believe they’ve found two broken poles that seemed to be the source of unexplained outages and were working to fix them early last evening.

In the meantime, the city is asking residents without power not to plug a generator into their electrical outlets. Grayson Mauch, the city’s incident commander, said doing so could pose a huge risk for electrocution.

“When generators are plugged into wall outlets to a home there is always that risk that power from that generator can back-feed onto the system, as utility workers, and electricians are working on the infrastructure plugging generators into a home outlet would energize the system which would put the workers in immediate safety risk,” he said.

The city recommends plugging a generator directly into an appliance instead.

For residents that require electricity to power essential medical equipment like oxygen tanks, Merrick Brown, the city’s director of emergency management said they have been working with AHS to ensure all residents are able to access the treatment they need.

“That is where that really strong collaboration with Alberta Health Services comes in and that is exactly what we did with Alberta Health Services is we coordinated their list of individuals that need those types of support to what our outage list looks like and we basically compare those lists and basically Alberta Health Services can actually take that list and see where those outages are and work with those individuals directly.”

The city added health and safety is always their number one priority when it comes to restoring power.