Wild, windy and wet weather wallops parts of province; Hydro scrambling to get power on in some areas

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This article was published 17/06/2024 (488 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Thunderstorms and high winds battered parts of Manitoba over the weekend, the latest in a succession of inclement weather systems to strike the province.

Approximately 1,000 Manitoba Hydro customers remained without power Monday afternoon as the public utility scrambled to restore damaged infrastructure.

The outages, some lasting more than 18 hours, were 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 told the Free Press. “We had poles 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.”

Environment Canada issued a weather warning Sunday as wind speeds soared just after 1 a.m.

The weather system was the result of a derecho — a Spanish term describing a long, linear formation of thunderstorms accompanied by extreme winds, said meteorologist Natalie Hasell.

Weather data shows areas surrounding Deloraine in the southwest corner of the province were among the hardest hit, with winds gusting at 101 km/h within the community and up to 123 km/h at a weather station 17 kilometres north.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a storm like this,” said Jerry Redden, councillor in the RM of Deloraine Winchester and the community’s fire chief.

“There are a lot of trees that were blown down or broken off. They came down across power lines and went into houses. It’s a lot of cleanup.”

The storm blew through the north side of town, leaving a strip of damage in its wake. The local branch of the Royal Canadian Legion was one of the buildings caught in its path, Redden said, describing how “it looked like somebody took a can opener and just opened up the roof.”

West of town, an agribusiness had numerous grain bins caved in by the storm, he said.

Redden and his fire crews deployed in the immediate aftermath, attempting to clear debris from the streets in anticipation of incoming Hydro crews.

They went to check on the homes of residents in the affected area. Nobody was reported injured, he said.

“We never made it to bed that night. We were out all night.”

Environment Canada has not confirmed reports of tornadoes, but wind speeds remained high throughout the affected regions until at least 5 a.m., including in Winnipeg, where gusts reached 61 km/h, Hasell said.

The result was “significant and widespread” damage across a large swath of the province. Hydro called in additional staff to help bolster crews, Powell 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 about 100 kilometres west of Brandon, also reported a rude awakening, said RM of Pipestone Reeve Archie McPherson.

“I was up during the storm because I was worried about a power outage,” he said. “It was one of the strongest storms I’ve witnessed in a long time.”

A nearby grain elevator was damaged; 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.

Jake Ayre, vice-president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, said farmers in the affected region are still assessing the damage the storm wrought on their crops.

“It almost looks like the plants have been shot with shotgun pellets,” he said, describing the cornfields on his farm near Minto, about 50 kilometres south of Brandon.

“That’s just from the dust and gravel and stuff that blew and roughed them up. Many people are in the same boat and trying to determine if (their crops) are just damaged, or if it’s complete destruction.”

Farmers are “watching the skies” and the local weather forecasts as they try to get their crops into the ground before the end of the month, in time to qualify for crop insurance. Periods of winds and rain can present a challenge, Ayre said.

The province has experienced high levels of precipitation in the last month, including in Winnipeg, where 114.7 millimetres of rain fell last month. The numbers are nearly double the 30-year average of 69.5 mm in May, Hasell said.

The longest period of time without any amount of precipitation in Winnipeg last month was just four days, from May 19 to May 24. The city has logged 68.2 millimetres of precipitation so far this month — nearly matching the 30-year monthly average of 74.3 millimetres, she said.

Thunderstorms and showers were expected to continue in southern Manitoba Monday night into Tuesday, with yet another inclement weather system forecast to arrive at the end of the week.

“There will continue to be thunderstorms, and likely severe thunderstorms, on a regular basis throughout the rest of the season,” Hasell said.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca