Thousands Without Power as Winter Storm Takes Down Manitoba Hydro Lines
Parts of Southwestern Manitoba are under a snowfall warning.
Reported by: Hannah Hiebert
February 8th, 2024
After an unusually warm spell, Manitobans are grappling with the return of winter weather to the southern part of the province. Manitoba Hydro blamed the rain, followed by snow and freezing temperatures for a series of outages that occurred Thursday afternoon, leaving more than 6000 customers without power.
“As the snowfall and wind picks up, a lot of that rain is freezing and causing us a little bit of problems in western Manitoba with ice on power lines,” said Hydro spokesperson Bruce Owen. Owen asked people to stay patient while Hydro crews scrambled to address the combination of downed power lines and broken poles that were responsible for the power outages, noting that wind and blowing snow are making highway travel difficult for everyone. He states that Manitoba Hydro crews are restoring power as quickly as they can, but they use the same roads to travel as everyone else, justifying why Owen urged customers to be patient with them.
Classes were cancelled for the day in all 10 schools in the Virden-area Fort La Bosse School division alongside 13 schools in Southwest Horizon School Division. Schools remained open in southwestern Manitoba’s Beautiful Plains, Park West, and Rolling River school divisions, but school buses were not running.
Snowfall that began in Western Manitoba Wednesday evening was expected to end Thursday later in the afternoon and evening. However, a return to colder but still above-seasonal temperatures is in the forecast for the weekend and into next week.
Additional Information Provided by: CBC News