Thousands of customers without power Saturday in southern Alberta after damage to infrastructure

A power outage in southern Alberta on Saturday left over 8,300 customers without power for hours.

Fortis, an electricity distribution utility which supplies power to people outside of major centres in Alberta, says Brooks, Alta. as well asTilley, Newell County, Scandia, Dutchess, Chisholm, and the Westlock area hadbeen impacted by large electrical outages.

Fortis told CBC News that the cause of the outage was due to infrastructure damage and that technicians were needed to make emergency repairs.

Altalink tweeted their control centre was alerted to the outage at the Brooks Substation at 7 a.m., where they identified the damaged equipment.The cause of damage is unknown at this time.

According to Fortis' Twitter, power in the region wasrestored just after12 p.m.