Thousands of Calgarians were able to finally return home after power was cut off to over 100 residential and commercial buildings in the core on Saturday night.

A fire underground severely damaged the cables and knocked out power to buildings between 5 Street and 11 Street and 4 Avenue and 7 Avenue SW and about 5000 residents and 1000 businesses were affected.

ENMAX and city crews worked around the clock to restore the system and began reenergizing the grid on Thursday morning.

Property Managers checked the buildings to ensure that they were running normally before letting residents back in.

“All 25 residential buildings have been inspected, they were the first priority and they are all energized,” said Mayor Naheed Nenshi.

The Canadian Red Cross was working in the area and deployed volunteers from the Mewata Armoury to various buildings to help residents as they returned home.

Business owners were also allowed back into the area and many were eager to get things up and running again.

“We’re just getting the heat back on and trying to settle back in,” said Marissa Toohey from Attainable Homes. “It was a bit of an inconvenience but we managed to get back on our feet okay so we’re looking forward to getting our customers through the doors again now.”

Nenshi said that about 160 of 200 commercial buildings were inspected and reenergized by Thursday afternoon.

Information for returning residents and businesses:

  • Re-entry checklists for returning residents, building owners/managers and commercial businesses are available on Calgary.ca.
  • For information on troubleshooting your telephone, cable TV or Internet service contact Shaw.
  • Citizens who require any additional social assistance support should contact 2-1-1.
  • Spoiled food items that are securely bagged to prevent leaks can be discarded in your facility’s usual garbage collection bin. If that bin is full, contact your property manager for bin removal or emptying. City of Calgary collection schedules are not affected, and regular pickup will occur according to your normal schedule. Should you have questions regarding private garbage collection service, please contact your property manager.
  •  Citizens or business owners/operators with concerns about their building should contact their building operator.
  • Now that power has been restored, the Information Centre at Mewata Armoury will be closed at 9 p.m. this evening.

The city has provided additional reentry information for residents affected by the power outage, click HERE for more information or scroll the document below…