Power out for thousands of Manitobans

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This article was published 11/11/2021 (1576 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

More than 10,000 people in the Interlake and other areas mostly to the north and east of Winnipeg were without power Thursday after heavy snow toppled electrical lines.

As of mid-day Thursday, there were 158 outages, leaving 10,363 homes without electricity. 

Manitoba Hydro spokesman Bruce Owen said restoring power will take some time in areas where the ongoing snow storm toppled hydro poles, although crews began working overnight.

The Crown power corporation’s online outage map shows many lines in the southern Interlake aren’t expected to be fixed until end of day Friday. 

Environment Canada issued snowfall warnings for Arborg, Pine Falls, Selkirk and other areas Wednesday. The weather agency expected as much as 10 centimetres of snow to fall Wednesday night, with an additional 10 centimetres falling throughout Thursday.

That heavy snow has wreaked havoc on some of Hydro’s infrastructure. 

“The area with the (damaged) poles, in the Interlake region near Arborg, it requires specialized equipment, you need diggers, you need people in bucket trucks, you need to take up, reset new poles and restring them with powerline,” said Owen.

“With the snow accumulation — I don’t know if you’ve been out shoveling yet — but it’s a wet, heavy, sticky snow. In some areas, it’s clinging to the lines and with the weight… (some lines) are snapping and coming down. Some poles are being damaged as well because of the weight of that snow.”

Hydro has called in crews from Winnipeg and other areas not as hard hit by the storm to work in the Interlake and nearby areas without power.

“This is going to take a little bit of time in some areas. Other areas aren’t, potentially, as hard hit, so it’s just a matter of reattaching lines that are down,” said Owen. 

Meanwhile, the first snow of the year has made driving on southern Manitoba roads precarious. Highway 1 was closed Thursday east of Falcon Lake to Thunder Bay, while visibility is poor on other roads and highways due to blowing snow and high winds. An updated map of highway conditions is available on the province’s website.

“What’s the other problem we face? Just like anybody else on the roads today… It’s a little bit slowgoing,” said the spokesman. 

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca