At most during Thursday, around 5,000 Umeå Energi customers were without power, Skellefteå Kraft has also been hit hard.
Approximately half of Umeå Energi’s customers had their electricity restored during the day. The company cannot say how long it will take before all customers have light and heat in their homes.
– We have not been able to go up in a helicopter and inspect the wiring streets and see the extent of the problem. All our staff are out in the woods tramping. They take meter by meter and tree by tree, says Olov Hjärtström-Baudin, press officer at Umeå Energi.
The forest resembles a pick stick
He has received reports from his employees and describes a picking stick in the forest.
– It has been blowing something so terrible. On some lines there are hundreds of trees. It is still very windy, trees are constantly at risk of blowing over. It’s no game out there, says Olov Hjärtström-Baudin.
Umeå Energi expects to stop work at 9 p.m. and resume it early Friday morning.
Would have liked a water bottle
The customers who have not received power again this evening will also be without power overnight?
– That can probably be the case. You should prepare for that, says Olov Hjärtström-Baudin.
Henrik Bäckström would have liked, with hindsight, to have been better prepared. For example, with a water bottle and a fully charged power bank. But he broadly takes the debacle in stride. On Thursday evening, dinner with the family awaited.
– There will be hot sandwiches in the fireplace, he says.