High winds and downed trees have resulted in power outages in many area of the province.
About 760 customers in the St. Andrews area lost power around lunch time. Manitoba Hydro couldn’t say how long repairs would take.
Earlier this morning, crews responded to an outage in Grand Rapids shortly after 5 a.m. affecting nearly 400 customers and another in the Westbourne/Delta Beach area affecting 600.
In Winnipeg, about 900 customers in River Heights lost power at about 10 in the morning. The utility expected to have them back online within a couple hours.
Manitoba Hydro also warned people to be cautious around downed power lines:
Trees down and fallen lines across MB due to high winds. Stay away from downed lines for your safety. #mboutage https://t.co/5u2uQvcbqI pic.twitter.com/TInJ7K0hel
— Manitoba Hydro (@manitobahydro) October 18, 2017
Wind speeds reach 102 k/hr
Meantime, Environment and Climate Change Canada has released a preliminary summary of wind speeds measured in southern and central Manitoba.
So far, Dauphin appears to have been hit hardest, with wind gusts reaching a top speed of 102 km/h. McCreary experienced gusty winds that reached 98 km/h,and Roblin hit 94 km/h.
In the far north, the communities of Churchill, Lac Brochet and Tadoule Lake are under a blizzard warning, with winds expected to gust up to 90 km/h and 10 to 20 cm of snow forecasted.
Churchill resident Joe Stover shared his perspective of the conditions Wednesday:
1st blizzard of the season has arrived in Churchill. pic.twitter.com/0adovZzLyQ
— ᔫ ᔅᑐᕖᕐ Joe Stover (@joechurchill) October 18, 2017
