A complete winter wallop has resulted in travel not recommended or roads even closed south of Maple Creek.

Yesterday afternoon the Town of Maple Creek has issued a Mandatory Water Restriction for all users of the town’s water supply system. The water treatment facility lost power and SaskPower was estimating it would be a minimum of 24 hours to repair.

The town of Maple Creek has declared a civil emergency.  Residents are asked to remain at home if possible. And due to hazards in multiple locations in the town citizens were being asked to avoid unnecessary movement in the community.  A warming station was opened up at the Salvation Army Hall in Maple Creek and those who need food, water, somewhere to sleep, could do so at the Salvation Army Hall where there is enough generator power available to run the warming station including fridge, stove, heat and oxygen concentrators.

Winds were gusting to 90 kilometres an hour yesterday combined with heavy snow and SaskPower says the high winds caused significant damage to the power infrastructure, particularly in the Maple Creek area. This includes up to 200-300 damaged power poles, and miles of downed power lines.  Since the beginning of the storm, the Outage Centre has fielded about 2,600 calls. As of 6:30 p.m. Tuesday evening, approximately 3,700 customers were still without power.

SaskPower says some customers would remain without power overnight last night due to the extent of the damage and the poor road and weather conditions. The areas impacted through the night included Maple Creek and surrounding rural areas and Frontier and surrounding rural areas.

The Crown power company is warning those impacted that they will have to schedule planned outages in order to complete all the necessary repairs. Anyone who comes across a low hanging or downed power line needs to stay 10 metres away and call SaskPower.