Storm leaves Hatters without power for the second time in three days

By Collin Gallant on June 2, 2017.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com @CollinGallant

For the second night in three, Hatters were left without power for hours after power lines were knocked out in a fast developing storm on Thursday.

Power went out for about 8,800 utility customers in the downtown, the Southeast and West hill areas as well as the Flats and Crescent Heights at about 7 p.m. as a thunderstorm hit Medicine Hat.

More information is expected to be released early today, but initial reports stated crews were dealing with a spate of broken tree branches, broken poles and lines that had shorted and were lit on fire.

Crews returned power service to the north end by 9 p.m., and power clicked back on in central areas just before 11 p.m.

On Tuesday, a fault on a line near the city’s Riverview substation sparked a pole fire and set a grassfire on the hill beside the city’s power plant. After the fire department extinguished the blaze, most customers were reconnected within an hour, but others where without electricity for another 80 minutes.

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