Fierce winds on Saturday and Sunday caused multiple power outages because of trees being blown onto power lines, Tony Badrey of ATCO Electric Yukon said today.

Crews have restored power to most of Whitehorse with the exception of a few customers in Riverdale, he told the Star this morning.

But they are still working in the Tagish area, where multiple trees were blown down onto power lines, said ATCO’s manager.

He said they had about 500 customers in Tagish that remained out this morning.

Most of the damage by wind was in Tagish, Badrey said.

“We have most of our customers back on,” he said. “We have a few places where there was some damage, but most of it was in Tagish.”

Traffic was down to one lane on parts of the Tagish Road at one point due to fallen trees.

Badrey said trees on the lines in Riverdale will have to be removed and residents will require an electrician to reconnect them.

“We are working to get them reconnected,” he said.

Yukon Energy reported this morning they had an outage Saturday at Johnson’s Crossing that affected 12 customers for approximately six hours because of a tree on the line.

There was another outage Sunday that affected the 12 customers at Johnson’s Crossing for approximately four hours because of another tree striking the power line, Yukon Energy reported.

Environment Canada meteorologist Matt Loney explained this morning the burst of rain in Whitehorse Sunday afternoon could be described as a 100-year event – meaning you would not expect to see such an event for another 100 years.

Yesterday’s rainfall amounted to 23.7 millimetres, with 22.6 mm (almost one inch) falling in one hour between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m, he said.

He said you would not expect to see the amount of rainfall in that one hour in 100 years.

Put differently, there is a one per cent chance of seeing that amount of rain in one hour in a year, he explained.

Loney said there were wind gusts Saturday that hit 75 kilometres per hour.

The unstable air is expected to last in the southern Yukon for the rest of today and Tuesday, he said.

Loney said there are still storm watch warnings for Dawson, Mayo, Pelly Crossing, Haines Junction and Burwash Landing.

The Star attempted to contact the City of Whitehorse this morning to inquire about the effects of the weekend’s storms on infrastructure, but did not receive a response.