Residents of the Stettler region were left in the dark and cold for a few hours early Saturday morning as electricity was knocked out of service because of weather conditions.
“We attribute it to the heavy frost on the lines,” said Allan Gano, the Stettler-based district manager for ATCO Electric.
“It was a beautiful morning, but the frost played havoc.”
Power went out at about 4:15 a.m. in the Stettler area and points south to Big Valley and north to Red Willow, Gano said.
It was restored “a few hours later.”
For the community of Stettler, residents regained power service at 7:35 a.m.
ATCO appreciated the patience of its customers during the outage, Gano said.
He said that with updated infrastructure and technology, would-be lengthy power outages — particularly during cold weather — can be restored more quickly than many decades before.
“We try to build infrastructure so we can respond quickly. With weather, we never know what could happen.”
Gano advised people to take steps to cope during such unpredictable situations.
“We always ask people to be ready and prepared,” he said.
For an emergency plan and tips, Gano suggested that people visit the utility website at atcoelectric.com.