The Saskatchewan RCMP is asking residents in southwest Saskatchewan where phone lines are down because of the storm to come to the nearest Detachment if there is an emergency and neither your landline or your cell phone are working. Residents of Burstall, Fox Valley and Richmound are asked to go to the Leader RCMP Detachment and residents of Cypress Hills, East Fairwell, Fort Walsh and Golden Prairie are asked to go to the Maple Creek RCMP Detachment.

SaskTel indicated to police that they anticipate more services may be disrupted in the area if power is not restored. SaskTel has announced an internet, wireless and landline services outage in the Burstall, Cypress Hills, East Fairwell, Fort Walsh, Fox Valley, Golden Prairie and Richmound areas. There is no estimated time of repair.

With winds still gusting to 60 kilometres an hour in the southwest part of Saskatchewan, the winter weather hammering the region is by no means over. Environment Canada says there is still precipitation coming down between Maple Creek and Swift Current. Weather stations are not reporting snowfall amounts because the power is out in the southwest although meteorologist Terri Lang said she talk to one weather watcher in Cypress Hills who said it was “bumper pushing snow” by yesterday afternoon.

In the Maple Creek area SaskPower said there were 200 to 300 damaged power poles, and miles of downed power lines. The Town of Maple Creek has declared a civil emergency and issued a Mandatory Water Restriction for all users of the town’s water supply system after the water treatment facility lost power. A warming station has opened up at the Salvation Army Hall in the Community.

Winds were gusting to 90 kilometres an hour on Tuesday combined with heavy snow.