It’s still too early to tell about how much Tuesdays night storm will cost the City of Red Deer as residents continue to clean up.

At a press conference held earlier this afternoon, representative from the City of Red Deer provided an update on how the city is recovering.

Mayor Tara Veer said Environment Canada called this type of windstorm a “straight wind”, which formed a band that swept across the city. Usually these types of weather formations occur in open areas, and are not as common in largely populated areas.

Currently, the City has all but about 1% of the power resorted, comparing that to the 30% who went without power during the immediate aftermath of the storm, says City Manager Craig Curtis.

The areas that are still without power include the Vanier Woods, Riverside Light Industrial Park, and the Glendale/Normandeau neighbourhoods, affecting approximately 400 properties.

Electric Light and Power crews want to remind residents that they are unable to reconnect fallen power lines until damage to meters on private property can be repaired.

Anyone with meters or connecting power lines that were damaged during the storm are asked to bring in an electrician for repairs before city crews can reconnect the fallen lines.

Emergency Operations Director with the City of Red Deer Kelly Kloss says their main focus now is restoring power to all those still affected.

“Downed trees and power poles are still our main obstacles to getting power back on. 40 power poles were damaged and needed to be replaced before power could be restored; at this point, we have about 15 power poles left to replace.

We are focusing on the major issues that affect the most residents, and then we will work to fix small pockets around the city.”

Due to the expected increase in garbage for the next few days, whether that’s in the form of tree branches or spoiled food, The City is relaxing their five bag limit for areas that have had extensive power outages which will last until June 29th.

There is no limit on the amount of yard waste as long as it’s contained properly. Only smaller branches, which are defined as branches 1 inch in diameter and up to 4 feet long, can be set out for regular yard waste collection.

Anything bigger can be brought to the north snow storage facility, located at 6859 Edgar Industrial Drive. Drop off is free of charge, and it’s open daily from 7am until 11pm.

The following parks and trail systems are now once again open: Bower Ponds, but no trails, Great Chief park, Rotary Picnic park (not including trails), Rotary Recreation Park and Heritage Square (not connecting trails), and the entire Lions Campground is open and ready to go.

Anyone wishing to volunteer to help residents with light yard clean up can contact Volunteer Central at 403-346-3710, or email community@volunteercentral.ca.

For more information you can visit the City of Red Deer’s website, by calling them at 403-342-8111, or by following them on Facebook and Twitter.