Approximately 3,000 Manitoba Hydro customers remain without power as the public utility scrambles to restore infrastructure damaged by a weekend wind storm.
The outages, some as long as 18 hours, are primarily affecting customers in the Parkland, Westman and southwest corners of the province, said Scott Powell, Hydro’s director of communications.
“It was a very busy weekend for our crews,” Powell said Monday morning. “We had polls down, we had wires down right through those areas, so it’s a lot of work and our crews are going to be working hard all day today to get those remaining customers on.”
A toppled Hydro pole in western Manitoba on Sunday. (Manitoba Hydro)
Environment Canada issued a weather warning Sunday as wind speeds soared throughout the regions. Weather data show areas around Brandon and Dauphin were among the hardest hit, with winds gusting up to 91 kilometres per hour.
The winds battered Hydro infrastructure, buildings and trees, kicking up large swaths of topsoil that compromised visibility and exacerbated working conditions for Hydro crews, Powell said.
The storm began early Sunday morning and continued throughout part of the day, causing “significant and widespread” damage, Powell said. Hydro called in additional staff to help bolster crews, he said.
By Sunday evening, Hydro issued a statement to affected customers, warning that some regions could remain without power overnight.
Crews employed a triage system, addressing outages impacting the largest number of customers on a priority basis. By Monday morning, a smaller numbers of customers were affected by power outages, but there were still “a ton of them,” Powell said.
Residents in Sinclair, a rural community located roughly 100 kilometres southwest of Brandon, awoke around midnight to the sounds of howling wind and rattling windows, said RM of Pipestone Reeve Archie McPherson.
“I was up during the storm because I was worried about a power outage,” he said by phone. “It was one of the strongest storms I’ve witnessed in a long time.”
Homeowners are now cleaning up the felled branches of trees littering the area, he said.
“Just telling by the trees and the lightning and what-not, you could tell it was significant.”
Photos began circulating in community Facebook groups showing a grain elevator damaged by the storm. The side of the structure was shredded by wind, causing a portion of the exterior facade to collapse and expose the wooden framing beneath, McPherson said.
The structure, which is privately owned, was previously damaged in a storm around three years ago. It has not been operational for several years, he said.
McPherson said farmers in the area have been struggling with the weather this season, as wind and rain make it difficult to spray their fields.
“Everybody is watching the weather pretty close,” he said.
Manitoba Hydro operates an interactive map showing ongoing power outages in the province. It is available online.
tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca
Tyler Searle
Reporter
Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press‘s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.
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