CTV News Edmonton has reported:

High winds knocked out power at two advance voting locations in the Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock electoral division Wednesday afternoon, prompting Elections Alberta to close them temporarily. The affected sites were the Athabasca Seniors Centre polling station and the returning office on 50 Street in Clyde.

The outage began at about 2 p.m. and was expected to be resolved by 4:30 p.m. Elections Alberta said voting materials, ballot boxes and ballots were secured while the locations were closed. Both sites will remain open past 8 p.m. for as long as they were shut, allowing voters additional time to cast ballots.

The closures came as strong winds caused hundreds of confirmed and unconfirmed outages across central and northern Alberta, including the Edmonton area. Online outage maps from Fortis Alberta and ATCO showed more than 10,000 customers without power Wednesday afternoon. Crews were working to restore service.

Fortis reported about 6,250 customers without power in and around Athabasca, about 135 kilometres north of Edmonton. In Boyle, about 125 kilometres northeast of Edmonton, 1,788 customers were affected, with another 1,946 customers without power east of the town toward Lac La Biche. About 2,000 customers north and south of Cooking Lake in Strathcona County had their power restored by 5:30 p.m.

ATCO serves much of northern Alberta and parts of east-central Alberta, including Lloydminster, Bonnyville, Vegreville and St. Paul. Its confirmed outages included 110 customers near Kinuso on the south shore of Lesser Slave Lake and 89 near Wapiti, south of Grande Prairie. Fortis had been contacted for more information.

A wind warning was in effect for Edmonton and much of north-central Alberta. Edmonton gusts ranged from 50 to 75 kilometres per hour through much of the afternoon, while stations outside the city recorded 80 to 95 km/h. Gusty conditions were expected into Wednesday evening before easing overnight; calmer weather was forecast Thursday morning, with gusts returning to about 30 kilometres per hour in the afternoon.