Storm knocked out power, damaged totem pole

Stormy weather Wednesday night and early Thursday left more than 4,000 homes — mostly in eastern Manitoba — without power and damaged a totem pole in Winnipeg.

Manitoba Hydro crews worked through the night, but strong winds made it unsafe to tackle downed power lines until they abated, spokesman Peter Chura said.

There were multiple outages across Winnipeg on Thursday morning, including in River Heights, where about 600 homes were without power.

About 75 per cent of the 4,000 customers who were without power were in eastern Manitoba, including hundreds in Victoria Beach and Fort Alexander. By late afternoon, there were only 10 customers without power in Winnipeg — mostly in the southwest area — and about 850 outside the city, mostly in eastern Manitoba.

A Manitoba Hydro spokesman said power would hopefully be restored to most homes by Thursday night. Power to some customers in eastern communities such as Victoria Beach, Bird Lake and Pointe du Bois might not have power restored overnight, the spokesman said.

Assiniboine Park Conservancy spokeswoman Laura Cabak said damage to the Residential School Totem Pole that was noticed Thursday morning is suspected to have been caused by a lightning strike.

The 21-metre-tall totem pole, made by artist Charles Joseph, was put up on Sept. 30, 2022 near the Leaf. The pole, meant to evoke the artist’s experience being taken from his family and forced to attend a residential school in British Columbia, was gifted to the Southern Chiefs’ Organization. The SCO plans to eventually display the pole at its development at the former Hudson’s Bay building downtown.

“We notified the Southern Chiefs’ Organization earlier this morning and are working with them to co-ordinate an assessment of the damage and structural integrity of the totem pole. As a safety precaution, access to the surrounding area is currently restricted,” Cabak said.

A City of Winnipeg spokeswoman said it received 57 reports of downed trees and 21 reports of flooded front streets and back lanes. The city received 112 calls about the storm overnight, with slight increases in wait times at about 11 p.m. Wednesday and 12:30 a.m. Thursday.

“There is no major cleanup underway, and we’re not aware of any power outages in city buildings,” the spokeswoman said.

While Wednesday night’s rainfall didn’t break any records, some areas, such as Portage la Prairie, got about 100 millimetres of rain and golf ball-sized hail.

“We’re basically talking about more than a month’s worth of rain falling over the course of five hours or less,” Crawford Luke, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said.

Winnipeg got about 22 mm of rain, “nothing too substantial,” Luke said.

Environment Canada did not have updated information on the number of lightning strikes Thursday morning.

“It was a really good light show, but we do see this happen maybe once a summer or so,” Luke said.

Manitoba might be especially grateful for the storm this summer, Luke said, as the province has been in a precipitation deficit as early as the spring.

“I think a storm like last night could potentially go a long way to making up for that,” he said.

— with files from Erik Pindera and Joyanne Pursaga

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca