Parts of River Heights hammered by storm Power lines downed, hydro poles toppled, trees splintered By: Melissa Martin Posted: 5:54 PM CDT Monday, Sep. 7, 2026

A powerful storm cut a swath of destruction through River Heights on Sunday, leaving much of the area without power.

Nobody was hurt in the storm.

By the time it subsided, parts of the quiet neighbourhood, especially Borebank and Lindsay streets between Grant and Taylor, had been ravaged: power lines downed, Manitoba Hydro poles toppled, trees splintered and crashed down on vehicles and homes.

In one case, a vehicle was flipped into a yard and sat under a partially downed tree. Shingles were stripped from roofs. Some residents described looking out during the storm and seeing power lines ablaze and the blue glow of electricity arcing over their backyards.

Jennifer Boychuck was at home with her son, Matthew, when the worst of the storm struck. She was in her kitchen, washing dishes, when she noticed the winds picking up.

“At first I thought, ‘Is there going to be a tornado?’” Boychuck said. “Then I thought, ‘Well, we’re not getting the warnings on our phone, like we did that one day.’ But the wind was getting stronger and stronger… all of a sudden I thought, ‘This isn’t right.’ It got really, really loud.”

As Boychuck and her son raced to shutter their windows and gather their cats, they looked out to see debris floating in the air outside their home. Her son heard some loud bangs, possibly from trees splitting and crashing onto houses nearby; she looked out to see the power lines toppling over her yard.

To their relief, the worst of the wind lasted only a few minutes — though it felt longer at the time, she said.

On Monday, residents of the most heavily damaged streets set about clearing tree debris from their yards and helping their neighbours do the same. Others strolled through streets partially blocked off due to downed power lines, pausing to greet each other, trade information and swap stories about what they’d seen.

Despite the heavy damage to some property, many residents took the situation in stride, choosing to enjoy the chance to get out and talk with their neighbours.

“There’s no power, what else are we gonna do?” one resident said. Several said they had never seen damage quite that extensive in their area.

OVERSET FOLLOWS:Around the corner from Boychuk’s house, Joe Michalchyshyn talked with Manitoba Hydro workers to see if there was any information about when power would be back. (There was not.) He had been out at the lake when the storm hit, and found out about the situation when one of his neighbours messaged and sent a picture.

“It said, ‘there’s a tree in your house,’” Michalchyshyn said.

While part of the large tree outside his house split off and crashed into the roof of his porch, there did not appear to be significant damage.

“Thank god, the house is OK and nobody was at home to get hurt,” he said.

While several River Heights residents described witnessing what appeared to them to be tornado-like funnel winds, there were no official reports to Environment Canada of tornadoes within Winnipeg, said Dan Fulton, an Environment Canada meteorologist based here.

Severe wind damage west of Elie in Bénard could be investigated as a potential tornado, Fulton said.

Researchers from the Northern Tornadoes Project are expected to arrive on scene later this week.

The heaviest rain during Sunday’s storms — 93 mm — was recorded at an agricultural station just outside of Portage la Prairie, Fulton said. Winnipeg got roughly 30 to 60 mm, with 63 mm recorded at The Forks and 35 mm at the airport.

It’s the latest in a series of thunderstorms that have battered Winnipeg and other parts of the province this summer, but rain and wind gusts weren’t as severe this time around as those recorded in storms in early June, late July and late August.

On June 9 and 10, a tornado touched down near Ste. Anne and 255 millimetres of rain flooded Stonewall. On July 29 and 30, wind gusts wreaked havoc and reached speeds of up to 133 km/h in Brandon.

Just last week on Aug. 30, a tornado was reported near Elkhorn, about 105 kilometres west of Brandon.

The wild storms won’t necessarily be an annual occurrence, said Fulton, noting it’s too simplistic to just chalk up to climate change the complex factors that cause a season of severe thunderstorms.

“This is an active summer for thunderstorms, but it’s not to say that next summer won’t be the complete opposite.”

— With files from Katie May

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca