Power restored after thousands struggle during heat wave in southwestern Alberta
CBC News | Posted: July 7, 2017 7:32 PM | Last Updated: July 8, 2017
Farmers concerned about getting water to their cattle as temperatures soar past 30 C
Crews have restored electricity to about 5,000 power meters in southwestern Alberta after a bird caused an outage at a time when heat warnings cover much of the province, AltaLink said.
The outage affected the towns of Pincher Creek and Fort Macleod, and rural properties as well, AltaLink spokesperson Scott Schreiner said at about noon Friday.
Schreiner says the outage was caused by a bird that damaged that some equipment at a substation.
The outage comes on one of the hottest days of the year.
Temperatures in the area were expected to reach 32 C by late Friday afternoon.
"We understand that people are, on a warm day, that they are using air conditioning," Schreiner said.
He noted that farmers need power to get water to their cattle.
"They need that equipment up and running as quickly as possible, so we are going to move quickly," he said.
The company tweeted that all power had been restored just after 8 p.m.
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