A destructive sweep of storms that cut through the province both last night and in days prior has left Manitoba Hydro trying to pick up an awful lot of pieces at once.
Hydro announced today that as of noon they were trying to restore power to more than 25,000 customers throughout the province after the storms last night, roughly 17,000 of whom are in Winnipeg. They called the storm “one of the worst summer storm events in recent memory” and said many customers may not even have their power back by the end of the day.
“Manitoba Hydro is mobilizing all available resources to respond to outages and safely restore power as quickly as possible,” said Peter Chura, Media Relations Officer for Manitoba Hydro. “Crews are assessing hundreds of downed lines and other damage, which will give us a clearer picture of when power will be restored. 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.”
While efforts to restore power are ongoing, the utility said they will need to complete damage assessments to fully understand the materials, staffing and logistical requirements prior to commencing full restoration work. And since more severe weather is likely on the way (Environment Canada had predicted a system of storms would last through June 12), work may be further disrupted.
“We thank our customers for their patience and support as we deal with the aftermath of this large storm,” Chura said. “We appreciate the difficulty that being without electricity can create when dealing with flooding, and want our customers to know we are doing everything we can to get their service restored as safely and quickly as we can.”
Hydro also asked people to make sure they stay at least 10 meters away from any downed power lines and report any they see to 9-1-1.
