Icy blast, power outage leaves many in the cold and dark

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This article was published 07/11/2022 (1084 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It wasn’t a huge dump of snow, but the first wintry blast of the fall left thousands of Manitobans without power and some in the ditches lining the Trans-Canada Highway.

Portage la Prairie resident Lynne Chappellaz said her normal Monday morning commute to St. François Xavier was a white-knuckle drive, taking almost an hour-and-a-half (normally 40 minutes) because Highway 1 was so icy.

“I was following a moving-type truck and twice he went sideways (down the) middle of the road,” Chappellaz said.

“I had no stopping capability on that sheer ice. So we had a long line doing about 40 to 50 kilometres (per hour) through that area. Yes, some people blew by us.”

Crews put sand down on the Trans-Canada around the Portage bypass, there was no grit to be seen east of the Assiniboine River, Chappellaz said.

“(It was) like nothing was done. (I’ve) been doing this commute since 2018,” she said.

“I saw a couple of semis facing the front direction in the ditch. One of the semis was by the Little Red Barn and it was laying on its side. The other one was just before the junction of (Highways) 1 and 13, again, he was facing west, but his rig was still upright at least.”

While the Sunday/Monday snowfall wasn’t the type to paralyze southern Manitoba, RCMP spokesman Paul Manaigre said it is a wake-up call about changing road conditions.

“Drivers need to pay attention to road conditions as black ice can appear anywhere,” he said. “Please watch your speed and your distance between vehicles as you may not be able to stop as quickly as before. Give yourself more time to get to your destination. As usual, keep your eyes on the road and not on your cellphone.”

Efforts to put sand and salt on the Trans-Canada overnight Sunday were hampered by winds gusting 70-90 km/h and blowing the material off the road, a provincial spokesperson said.

Crews returned at 5 a.m. to continue, the spokesperson said.

“Winter storms create several challenges to keep roads clear due to the combination of snow, ice, wind, drifting and blowing snow, and changing temperature. The province uses best practices to plow and sand during storm events, however, it was only after a storm that department staff are able to safely complete snow clearing and sanding activities.”

In Winnipeg, thousands of residents were hit by back-to-back power outages on Sunday night.

Manitoba Hydro spokesman Bruce Owen said the first happened just after 10 p.m. when a 69-kilovolt line tripped leaving about 29,000 people in River Heights, Fort Rouge and Polo Park areas in the dark.

“The cause was equipment failure. At the time, wet snow was falling, with high winds,” Owen said, noting all customers had power restored by 11:40 p.m.

A few minutes earlier, at 11:16 p.m., a second outage affecting 526 customers occurred because of an underground fault at Borebank Street and Grant Avenue.

Everyone impacted (the bulk located north of Corydon Avenue, south of Grosvenor Avenue, and in between Cordova and Cambridge streets) had the lights back on by 12:41 a.m., Owen said.

Natalie Hasell, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said the weather station at Winnipeg’s airport logged only about one-half millimetre of liquid equivalent Sunday night.

“There was a lot of mist and sprinkle and then full snow when it got colder,” Hasell said. “We’re not talking a whole lot of snow fell — maybe a centimetre — but it was definitely enough to affect things.”

The snow has a chance of melting Tuesday (a high of 4 C is predicted, followed by 2 C on Wednesday), but there are only minus temperatures in the long-range forecast, Hasell said.

City crews were busy overnight Sunday putting salt on bridges, underpasses and main routes before the morning rush hour, said Ken Allen, a spokesman for the public works department.

“Crews are also sanding sidewalks in high pedestrian areas, such as the downtown area. With warmer temperatures expected, it is anticipated that both sidewalk and roadway conditions will improve (Tuesday) during the day.”

There were 14 spreader trucks working on Monday, Allen said.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca