About 40,000 house holds were without power Monday night, as EPCOR worked to return power to Edmonton’s South neighbourhoods. The estimated time of repair was 8:30pm. The power outage started at 6:16pm.

It would seem the outage was not scheduled as people were walking to the near by store to get candles. We spoke to someone who was out walking looking to buy candles. Tons of fire trucks were also seen racing down Heritage Valley. The cause for this is not immediately known.

EPCOR’s website said at least 45,000 customers lost power starting at 6:15 p.m. Mobile phone internet stopped working at about the same time. It felt surreal driving in total darkness.

EPCOR said the cause was under investigation and the estimated restoration time was 8:30 p.m.

‘We appreciate the public’s support as we work as quickly and safely to restore power,” EPCOR said in a statement, providing no other details on what caused the problem.

Drivers reported chaotic scenes leaving Ellerslie as traffic lights also stopped working.

More than 30 neighbourhoods were listed in the outage, including:

Allard, Ambleside, Blackburne, Blackmud Creek, Callaghan, Cashman, Chappelle Area, Charlesworth, Cavanagh, Decoteau North, Desrochers Area, Edmonton South Central, Edmonton South Central East, Edmonton South West, Ellerslie, Ellerslie Industrial, Glenridding Heights, Glenridding Ravine, Graydon Hill, Hays Ridge Area, Heritage Valley Area, Heritage Valley Town Centre Area, Keswick Area, Laurel, The Orchards At Ellerslie, MacEwan, Meltwater, Paisley, Richford, Rutherford, Summerside, Windermere, Walker, and the Windermere Area.

Edmontonians turned to Twitter in frustration.

Africans and people who have lived in those parts of the world where power cut is part of life may not be too shocked or unsettled by the power cut tonight. Thankfully, the weather is no longer extremely cold so the inconvenience is bearable.

Update

Some areas have power restored. But areas as at 22:06 are still in darkness. The areas we drove through are: Heritage Valley, Crimson Creekwood , Jagare Ridge and Paisley.

Stay with us for continuous updates .

Stay tuned to our continuing coverage of South Edmonton Blackout.

Update!!!

EPCOR is reporting that there are no current outages at this time.