5,000 Hydro customers powerless after thunderstorm, pole fires - Action News
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Manitoba

5,000 Hydro customers powerless after thunderstorm, pole fires

Manitoba Hydro crews are hopping Saturday, trying to repair damage that caused outages affecting thousands of people in Winnipeg and in western Manitoba.

Crews racing to fix damage in Winnipeg, 17 other communities

Manitoba Hydro sent this photo of a downed pole in western Manitoba Saturday. (Submitted/Manitoba Hydro)

Manitoba Hydro crews are hopping Saturday, trying to repair damage that caused outages affecting thousands of people in Winnipeg and in western Manitoba.

A tweeted photo of a pole fire on AinslieStreet could be part of the problem affecting hundreds of customers in St. James.
In Harbourview South, a tree fell on a power line, affecting about1,130 customers. There's no timeline for either of those repairs to be completed.

A pole fire onPolsonAvenuein Winnipeg Saturday afternoon cut power to 2,877 customers; as of 5 p.m., most should have it back.

Friday's storm wreaked havoc in western Manitoba.About4,600 customers in Ninette, Killarney, Baldur, Lena, Neelin, Pilot Mound and Cartwright were affected.

Hydro's not sure when it can fix the damage from winds gusting up to 114 kilometres/hour, which includesthree broken poles, numerous trees on lines, one line down and one blown transformer.

Manitoba Hydro's outage map was an angry red on Saturday. (hydro.mb.ca/outages)
Lighting knocked out power to Hartney, Man. late Friday afternoon. It was restored one hour later, only to black out again Saturday.

And in St. Vital, the storm damaged a pole, cutting power to about 1,400 customers. Their lights went back on around 9 a.m. Saturday.

Hydro spokesperson Bruce Owen asks anyone without power to report it at hydro.mb.ca/outage so the utility knows the precise location and how many people are affected. That's the surest way to get the power back on, Owen said.