Calgary’s downtown may be dark for up to a week (Update)

Calgarians have dealt with floods, wind storms and a crippling September snowfall. Now they can add a downtown power outage to their list of unforeseen calamities.

In an update to media Sunday afternoon, Mayor Naheed Nenshi said 5,000 residents, 2,100 business and “thousands and thousands of employees” are affected by the blackout.

Any residents unable to find shelter are able check in at the Mawata Armorey on 11th Street southwest, where the city’s information centre is set up. As of 4p.m. 32 residents had already registered.

The Eau Claire YMCA is also offering free services for residents in the outage zone.

Many are expected to be without power for four to seven days as officials say they’re not just dealing with a repair, but a complete rebuild of the electrical system in the affected area.

The mayor did however have some good news in terms of road closures.

“I’m happy to say that the road closures have shrunk,” Nenshi said. “We’ve been able to re-open large sections of downtown. What remains closed is really down to the block around the fire itself.”

That includes 5th and 6th Avenues, between 7th and 9th street, and 8th Street between 4th and 6th Avenue SW.

Transit is also running as per usual.

ENMAX estimates power will be restored sometime between Wednesday and Saturday evening.

Agencies/Canadajournal