About 1,500 River Heights homes still without power after Sunday night’s storm

Some 1,500 customers in River Heights were still without power Tuesday morning, a day and a half after a violent storm ripped through the south Winnipeg neighbourhood.

Manitoba Hydro says crews are continuing to repair “severe damage” to power lines, poles and other equipment, but outages are expected to continue until Wednesday afternoon.

“Crews are encountering more damage as fallen trees are removed, and access is challenging in some areas,” Manitoba Hydro said in a statement.

“We know extended outages are difficult, and we thank customers for their patience and support as crews work safely to restore power.”

Ira Kaye is among those neighbourhood residents still without power.

“My wife and kids are staying elsewhere,” he said. “I’m sticking around to make sure the generator’s running, and the sump pump keeps running. But just plug through it, there’s not much else you can do with it.

“We were home and everything went pitch black and then all the hydro lines started snapping. And you could see the flares from that. And then after that, it lightened up and my tree was folded in half on our front lawn.”

Winnipeg’s mayor says the damage in River Heights stands out.

“Other parts of the city also had power outages, but the damage to infrastructure, power, hydro infrastructure and trees, especially in that River Heights pocket, is quite remarkable,” said Scott Gillingham.

Starting Tuesday, the City of Winnipeg says 20 firefighters began going door to door in affected areas – “based on areas with the greatest impacts” – to check on residents without power.

Manitoba Hydro is recommending customers without power check the overhead service mast on their property for damage. If damaged, it would need to be repaired by an electrician before the Crown utility can restore power to that property.

The storm hit around 6:30 p.m. Sunday, leading to flooded streets, sewers backed up, fallen trees, downed power lines and damaged vehicles.

Roughly 7,000 customers were plunged in the dark at the peak of the outage. More than 4,000 were without power as of Monday afternoon.

“There’s one back lane where there are five poles damaged, and that back lane is very narrow,” explained Manitoba Hydro’s Peter Chura. “There’s a lot of fallen trees, another debris, and it’s a challenge to get enough heavy equipment in there to support all of those poles to take the tension off the lines so that the work can safely get done.”

Manitoba Hydro says all homes in the Westwood area had their power restored by Monday evening.

Supports for residents

The City of Winnipeg says it has set up a reception centre at Corydon Community Centre in Rier Heights – on Grosvenor Avenue – to support residents affected by the power outages.

The services being offered include bottled water, snacks, phone charging stations, free Wi-Fi, and emergency mental-health supports.

Jay Shaw with the WFPS says the city will work with the Northern Tornadoes Project to better understand the wind event, as residents continue dealing with what it left behind.

“Researchers will look at it and determine what it was,” said Shaw. “But we’re talking about a severity here and the complexity of these types of events and how fast they’re coming into the city, that they’re causing immediate damage. It’s a new reality for our city to see these summer storms be so severe.”