YELLOWKNIFE - Yellowknife businesses were forced to scale back or shut down after the city experienced several short power outages Monday afternoon.

Electricity was out four times between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. after lightning hit a transmission line near Snare hydro site, NWT Power Corporation reported.

Bill Lam, a chef at Robin's Nest Restaurant, prepared only cold sandwiches for customers on Monday afternoon when multiple power outages hit the city. - Katie May/NNSL photo

Some had their lights back on as soon as three minutes after the first outage, around 3:10 p.m., when NWT Power Corp restored the first electrical feeder, said director of hydro Robert Schmidt.

After 13 minutes, power was back on for the whole city, only to go out briefly three more times before the end of the work day.

"With this weather we can expect it this time of year," Schmidt said.

He said lightning struck near the hydro plant about 16 times an hour. The Giant Mines site was the last area of the city to get its lights back on, and power was fully restored around 5:30 p.m.

Robin's Nest Restaurant could only serve coffee, tea and cold sandwiches during the outages Monday, so kitchen staff didn't have much to do during that time, the general manager said Tuesday.

"Customers came in. They thought we could still cook, but we couldn't," Verda Law said.

"We cannot do anything in the kitchen ... It's just kind of inconvenient."

The restaurant had a back-up battery, but it died after about 20 minutes, leaving staff unable to use the phone or accept any non-cash payments. Fortunately, said Law, most customers only wanted a cup of coffee, which didn't affect the restaurant too much.

But other businesses, such as Sutherland's Drugs, had to shut down completely during the sporadic outages.

"We had to lock our doors every time the power went down," said manager Stephen Gwilliam.

"It made it quite awkward" to do business after the third and fourth time the lights went off, he continued.

After its back-up battery stopped, the store had no phone, no fax and no e-mail access, so staff had no means of communication. Gwilliam said Tuesday he wasn't sure how much money the store lost when it had to close down.

"It's one of those inestimable losses."