Latest News

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Saturday's weather blows... literally

Tree falls on house, power cut to many

By: Katherine Dow

Posted: 09/10/2012 3:18 AM | Comments: 0

SATURDAY'S blustery weather was to blame for the uninvited guest that tried to barge into Jorge Alvarez's home Saturday afternoon.

The Centennial neighbourhood resident was watching television just after noon on Saturday when he heard a very loud bang and felt his house shake.

"I looked through my front door's window and could only see leaves and branches. I went to the door and couldn't open it. A big tree had blown down on my house," Alvarez said as he waited for city officials to come and remove the fallen tree. The six-metre tree used to sit on the patch of road between the sidewalk and road in front of Alvarez's Patrick Street home.

Alvarez said although the tree caused extensive damage to the door and roof of his single-storey home, that wasn't what made him most upset about the tree intrusion.

"My three grandchildren had just left five minutes before that, through the front door. A very close call," Alvarez said.

Alvarez's leafy gate-crasher wasn't the only one causing an inconvenience Saturday.

Anthonie Koop, senior communications officer with Manitoba Hydro, said a large tree blew down on a feeder at Fermor Avenue and St. Anne's Road just before 10 a.m., causing about 1,400 homeowners in the St. Vital area to lose power for about an hour.

The wind also caused a plastic tarp to blow onto and wrap around some power lines, causing about 600 people in the Inkster Park area to lose power at 10 a.m. for almost two hours.

Koop said at about 2 p.m., Manitoba Hydro had already received calls from about 400 customers and, as a result, had to call in extra staff to help remedy the outages.

"It's been a very busy day all day, a lot of branches touching lines because of the wind, causing a lot of flickering lights and outages," Koop said.

Mark Melsness, with Environment Canada, said winds in Winnipeg reached about 50 to 60 kilometres an hour with gusts blowing at about 75 km/h. There were also gale warnings for the Lake Winnipeg area.

katherine.dow@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 10, 2012 A4

Fact Check

Have you found an error, or know of something we’ve missed in one of our stories? Please use the form below and let us know.

* Required

In which story did you find the error? *
Please post the headline of the story or the title of the video with the error.
What was the error? *
Please post exactly what was wrong with the story.
What should we have written?
Please indicate your source for the correct information.
Who else should we interview to improve this story?
Please include any contact information you may have.
Can we contact you in the future for advice on stories about this topic?
Yes

No
First Name: *
Last Name: *
E–mail Address: *
This will only be used to contact you if we have a question about your submission, it will not be used to identify you or be published.
Phone: *
This will only be used to contact you if we have a question about your submission, it will not be used to identify you or be published.
Colour:
Are you blue? If you can see this, leave it blank and get some CSS support.
Enter the words that you see: * This is to prevent our forms from being filled out automatically.
You have failed to correctly identify the words in the box above. Please try again.

More Latest News

Undock

You can comment on most stories on winnipegfreepress.com. You can also agree or disagree with other comments. All you need to do is register and/or login and you can join the conversation and give your feedback.

Have Your Say

New to commenting? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions.

The Winnipeg Free Press does not necessarily endorse any of the views posted. By submitting your comment, you agree to our Terms and Conditions. These terms were revised effective April 16, 2010.