High winds knock out power lines

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This article was published 06/10/2024 (603 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Many Manitobans, including hundreds in Winnipeg, were without power for hours over the weekend after high winds battered southern parts of the province.

The weather system that swept in early Saturday morning coincided with scheduled maintenance of Hydro’s online outage map — leaving many customers in the dark about where outages were occurring and how long they were expected to last.

“Unfortunately, due to the severity of damage, the high number of no power calls received, and the large number of trees and branches down that crews are having to clear, Manitoba Hydro may not be able to restore service to all customers by the end of the day. As a result, customers should prepare for extended outages,” the public utility said in a news release Sunday afternoon.

Around 2,900 customers remained without power due to 110 separate outages across the province as of 5 p.m. Sunday, including 40 customers in Winnipeg, Hydro spokesperson Peter Chura said via email.

“Many of the outages are single digit numbers of customers and it just takes time to reach them all to make repairs. Crews prioritize the calls that will energize the most customers at once.”

Some of the outages that struck Winnipeg earlier in the day lasted more than 12 hours. Elsewhere in the province, some customers were projected to spend up to 18 hours without power, according to the public utility’s online outage map.

“We are responding to numerous outages across southern Manitoba as a result of the high winds yesterday and overnight. Our priority is lines down calls to protect public safety. We will then address repairs to parts of our system serving large numbers of customers,” Hydro wrote in a statement on X (formerly Twitter), Sunday afternoon.

“We understand many of you have been without power for an extended time and that it’s uncomfortable. Know we are working as quickly as safely possible to restore your service. Your patience is appreciated.”

Environment and Climate Change Canada tracked sustained winds between 60 to 70 kilometres per hour, with gusts reaching over 90 km/h in some areas.

Gusts reached 82 km/h in Winnipeg — not quite strong enough to warrant a wind warning, but “getting close,” meteorologist Shannon Moodie said.

The winds were the result of a low-pressure weather system that developed in Alberta and “tracked quite quickly across the prairies.” Southwestern Manitoba was the hardest hit, with wind warnings issued in areas near the Saskatchewan border and into the Red River Valley region, she said.

Wind speeds peaked at 95 km/h in Brandon, 93 km/h in Deerwood and 91 km/h in Pilot Mound.

“With those winds you can expect damage,” Moodie said.

Some areas were still experiencing gusting on Sunday morning, but wind speeds were expected to subside throughout the day, she said.

Hydro warned customers Friday that its online reporting system would be down as it braced for widespread outages. Customers were advised to report outages by phone instead.

“Many customers are quite understandably wondering why the system upgrade that made our online services unavailable went ahead this weekend despite the weather forecast,” Hydro said on X.

“We kept our call centre open this weekend to take outage reports but as our customers have experienced, this proved unequal to the circumstances and resulted in inconvenience and frustration. For that we apologize.”

Winnipeg’s River Heights neighbourhood was one of several areas without power Sunday morning, more than 14 hours after it had been knocked out.

Winnipeg Police Service cadets were spotted in the area, directing motorists at the intersection of Cambridge Street and Corydon Avenue in the absence of functioning traffic signals.

Just before noon, Hydro said on social media that work had been completed in the area.

“Repairs are completed and power should now be restored to all customers affected,” it said.

Previously, Hydro posted an update for River Heights customers that indicated crews had paused restoration work for safety reasons after extreme winds caused damage in the area.

Elsewhere, in the Windsor Park neighbourhood, more than 870 customer were without power for most of the day Sunday. The outage map showed electricity was disrupted in the area just before 4 a.m.

“Crews are on site repairing downed lines. We’re hoping to have power back on around 5 p.m.,” Hydro said in a post shortly before 2 p.m. “We know it’s frustrating & we’re sorry for the inconvenience — we have additional crews working as quickly & safely as possible to restore power throughout the province.”

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca