Tens of thousands of Manitobans are still without power hours after vicious thunderstorms battered parts of the province. According to an update from Manitoba Hydro on Wednesday afternoon, more than 25,000 customers are still experiencing outages, including about 17,000 in the City of Winnipeg. The Crown corporation said all available resources are being used to respond to outages and safely restore power as quickly as possible. “Crews are assessing hundreds of downed lines and other damage, which will give us a clearer picture of when power will be restored,” said the Crown corporation’s media relations officer Peter Chura in a news release. “But due to the scale and widespread nature of damage, customers should prepare for extended outages, including overnight and into Thursday. In rural areas, flooding and highway closures may delay response.” Hydro also needs to complete damage assessments to assess what materials, staff and logistics are needed before starting full restoration work. The city is also working feverishly to clean up in the wake of the thunderstorms. According to a news release, city workers are tending to sewer backups, clearing debris from catch basins to help drain water, removing downed trees and repairing malfunctioning traffic signals. “Some low-lying areas, including underpasses, remain flooded. We are working to restore safe travel as quickly as possible,” the city said. Winnipeg’s 911 service was flooded with calls, pun intended, as the storm bared down on the city and much of southern Manitoba Tuesday night, bringing inches of rain, intense winds, massive hail and tornado sightings. According to the city, 851 emergency calls came in between 6 p.m. on Tuesday and 6 a.m. Wednesday. Of those, 132 were related to electrical hazards, like downed power lines, and 10 were for possible structure fires. There were also numerous calls about stranded vehicles. Three-one-one was similarly inundated. As of 9 a.m., there were 137 calls for downed trees and debris, 25 for malfunctioning traffic signals and 122 for sewer backups. The city advised 311 is still experiencing longer than average wait times on Wednesday morning. Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham said he is grateful to city crews who jumped into action to deal with the impact of the storm, which he said was significant. “Residents should continue to avoid flooded roads and underpasses, treat intersections with malfunctioning traffic signals as four-way stops, and stay away from downed power lines and fast-moving water,” he said in a statement. Meanwhile, the province announced that its Emergency Management Organization has mobilized regional emergency managers across impacted areas and established an incident command structure to coordinate the response. More than 50 Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure staff have been deployed to install signage and assess infrastructure damage, the province said in a news release, joined by 16 personnel from the Canada Task Force 4 search and rescue team. Rounding out the response, 21 personnel from the Manitoba Fire Service—drawn from departments in The Pas, Gilbert Plains, Dauphin, Winnipegosis and the Riding Mountain Mutual Aid District—have been called in, with a helicopter on standby for emergency evacuations and rescue operations. Tornadoes confirmed Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) confirmed tornadoes ripped through Ste. Anne and Dufrost during the intense storm, though it will be some time before the full extent of the damage is known. Funnel clouds were also spotted in the Red River Valley and Parkland regions of western Manitoba. Michaela Dueck was out for a drive with her partner near Ste. Anne Tuesday night when she saw a funnel cloud start to form in the sky above her. “We literally saw it transform from a huge cloud going into that funnel-type cloud but it never actually touched or hit,” she said. Dueck watched in awe and fear as the clouds swirled above her. Still, she took her camera out and began taking a dramatic time lapse video. “It was super cool to see that transformation of that cloud. I’ve never seen that before.” Torrential rainfall also doused Stonewall, with over 250 mm reported by 3 a.m. causing major flooding. Andrew Kirk, manager of Stonewall Home Hardware, said he was initially called in by a couple of friends looking for pumps after the family business had closed for the day. As he drove to the store, Kirk said conditions kept getting worse, and other cars began pulling up as well. “At that point, I just made the decision to open up the store and let people come up and get what they needed to try and salvage their basements,” he said. Kirk said others eventually came in to help run the tills, with staff serving customers until around 1 a.m. and tending to some desperate calls even after that. Kirk estimates a couple hundred people stopped by through the night to pick up items such as sump pumps, hoses, generators, shop vacs, and flashlights. He said the town of approximately 5,500 also lost power at some point during the storm. “Quite a bit of flooding—streets were flooded right out, cars were stranded,” said Kirk, a lifelong resident of 47 years. “Probably the most precipitation I’ve seen in this town in my whole life.” The Woodlands area also reported 120 mm, while 122 mm fell at The Forks in Winnipeg. Strong and gusty winds of 130 km/h were reported in Dand and Deloraine, the weather agency said. Brandon logged gusts of 100 km/h and Winnipeg clocked 94 km/h. A spokesperson with the Winnipeg Airports Authority said Tuesday’s storm disrupted 62 flights in total—52 arrivals or departures were cancelled, while 10 others were held before being diverted or redirected to gates. The statement adds some delays and cancellations carried into Wednesday, and that passengers are urged to check their flight status before heading to the airport. Grapefruit-sized hail reported Along with the rain came hail. ECCC received reports of globs as big as grapefruits—100 mm in diameter—in Otterburne, as well as tennis ball-sized hail in Winnipeg and Sanford. Golf ball-sized hail was spotted in other areas of southern Manitoba. A spokesperson for MPI said more than 8,000 claims had been reported as of Wednesday afternoon following Tuesday’s storm, covering hail, flood, and wind damage. The Crown corporation expects that number to rise in the coming weeks. ECCC meteorologist Brian Proctor told CTV News the storm was notable not just for its intensity, but for its stamina as well. “It wasn’t just that we saw thunderstorms, it’s that we saw thunderstorms that rambled on for hours on end that really was the most significant impact,” he said.
