A storm that blanketed parts of the city and surrounding area in hail Thursday damaged more than a thousand vehicles and caused a significant sewage spill.
A Winnipeg water and waste report notes heavy rainfall overwhelmed the wastewater outfall at 3100 Abinojii Mikanah (formerly Bishop Grandin Boulevard) just before 8 p.m. Thursday, leading about 5.5 million litres of diluted sewage to be diverted directly into the Red River.
“(This wastewater) dumps into a major river so it does get diluted,” said Coun. Brian Mayes, chairman of the water and waste committee.
FIONA ODLUM PHOTO
St. James resident Fiona Odlum said her entire property was covered by hail the size of peas and nickels.
”But, at some point, these repeated instances are still a major pollutant going into the river. There’s no getting around that.”
Thursday’s spill lasted at least four hours before being listed as “ongoing” in the city report. The city plans to update the total amount of sewage spilled after the long weekend.
Mayes noted the system is designed to divert sewage overflows into rivers to prevent it from backing up into basements.
“People don’t want us to shed (sewage) into their basement so we shed into the river. That’s a judgment that was made a long time ago. In the modern era, we do have to have a better effort to not have this go into the river,” he said.
Mayes said he’ll continue to call on the city to study sewage storage tunnels as a potential way to capture diluted sewage and prevent it from spilling into rivers during storms, while he’ll also push for increased annual funding for a master plan to reduce combined sewer overflows.
A massive sewage spill took place at the same site in February, when a pipe failure dumped more than 228 million litres of raw sewage into the river. An emergency bypass system created to end that spill continues to operate properly, but Thursday’s storm exceeded its capacity, according to the city’s website.
Water pollution was not the only storm-caused problem.
By Friday afternoon, Manitoba Public Insurance had received nearly 1,150 hail-related claims linked to the Thursday storm from Winnipeg and surrounding areas.
“As our data reflects a point-in-time search, these figures may not reflect all potential claims from this weather event as customers continue to open claims,” said spokeswoman Kristy Rydz, in an email.
Most of the hail reported Thursday fell in the Fort Garry to Polo Park and Sturgeon Creek areas of the city and was mostly pea-sized, though some people reported toonie-sized stones, said Natalie Hasell, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
St. James resident Fiona Odlum said her entire property was covered by hail the size of peas and nickels.
“It lasted for 15 minutes. I’ve never seen hail last that long,” Odlum said. “It was just crazy. It went on and on. After it was over, I walked outside, and it covered my feet. That’s how much hail fell.”
Odlum said she drove to Tuxedo a few minutes later and saw residents using snow shovels to remove hail from driveways.
Hasell said Winnipeg received 20 millimetres of precipitation Thursday, while Brunkild recorded 28.5 and Morris got 27.3.
“Thunderstorms are not unusual in May in southern Manitoba,” she said. “Last year, for hail in May, we had 34 reported hail events in the province, with loonie- and toonie-size in at least two of the reports, and at least (some) reports of golf ball-sized.”
St. James Coun. Shawn Dobson said hail completely covered the ground near his home, resembling snow, and destroyed at least one of his plants.
Coun. Janice Lukes (Waverley West) said she didn’t hear reports of hail damage but noticed some substantial puddles Friday morning.
“Some drains were plugged because we had really bad hail… so a lot of leaves got shredded and then they plugged drains,” said Lukes, noting roads were still passable.
Steve Chipman, president of Birchwood Automotive Group, said vehicles at two of the company’s dealerships in the Linden Woods area were hit by hail but the extent of the damages is still being determined.
“We do know there’s damage, we don’t know how much. To properly assess a vehicle, you have to put it under lights…. There can be micro-dents that require (a closer look),” said Chipman, noting the vehicles on the lots are covered by private insurance claims, not Autopac.
“We just went through this last August when there was a hail storm through Winnipeg… and we’ve been fixing cars non-stop since then. We’ve got a separate facility we have set up just to do hail claims.”
Chipman said that work was coming to an end, but there will be plenty more to look after now.
The City of Winnipeg received dozens of storm-related service requests by 11:30 a.m. Friday, including 28 for basement flooding, 76 for flooded streets/ditches, 13 for downed trees/broken branches and 15 for traffic signal-malfunctions.
Hasell said Manitobans should continue to be ready to deal with severe weather going into the long weekend.
“There is a generalized risk of thunderstorms through most of the southern Prairies and for Manitoba — a good chunk of the Interlake as well,” she said.
— with files from Kevin Rollason
joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca
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Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter
Born and raised in Winnipeg, Joyanne loves to tell the stories of this city, especially when politics is involved. Joyanne became the city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press in early 2020.
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