We want to give a thanks to two local SaskPower workers who went above and beyond the call of duty on the evening of June 27.
Monday, June 25, like thousands of others in our area, we lost power due to a massive storm that blew through. We tried many times to get through to SakPower on their infamous number 310-2220 to report our outage. The recording said, "Due to the high volume of calls we're are unable to take your call." This was totally understandable under the circumstances.
By Wednesday, June 27 at 7 p.m., after 45 hours without power, desperation set in, as all our neighbours had power restored by 10 a.m. that day. We knew then, the problem had to be on our property. We still tried to get through on the SaskPower outage line, but to no avail, as the same frustrating recording played on. Even after going to the local SaskPower office in the early morning to report the outage, we still had no results.
So, through a friend of a friend, we obtained of numbers of some local SaskPower workers. We did not expect an answer, or at the very least expected a cold reception, especially at that hour. We first called the number for Bill Newman, whose spouse told us he was still at work monitoring a line. She was very pleasant. We then called Justin Jack, and he immediately asked us how long we had been out of power. He asked for our land location so he could get hold of dispatcher in order to make up a work order. He had just hung up and Bill Newman called He had received the message from his wife and was checking to make sure we got in touch with someone. What a relief to know finally we were going to be taken care of. The dispatcher had no knowledge of our outage. Sometime during the night our power was restored. Once again, thanks a million! Bouquets to these workers.
Boots go out to the SaskPower outage line. It appears to be a provincial line. No wonder no one can get through.
We have had more power outages this past year than we have had in the past 20 years. Even though only a couple outages have been due to storms we have never been able to get through on this outage number. The manager who set up this line makes me wonder whether he has ever experienced a power outage. In rural areas, we do not have water, our toilets do not flush, most phones do not work, nor does the Internet. We cannot report our outage online either. We are isolated. Luckily, we had a power generator so were able to plug in fridges and freezers.
There has to be a better system. We need a local number to call and when using a recording it should be updated every hour or so, acknowledging the areas without power, so we are truly, not left in the dark.
Ken and Judy Jamieson
