Winter may be officially a few days away, but southern Manitoba is getting its first big blast over the next day.
With southern Manitoba under an Orange Blizzard Warning, the conditions have deteriorated Wednesday night as blizzard conditions with gusty winds and visibility frequently near zero have moved in.
Around 10 to 20 centimetres of snow is expected and winds out of the north could gust 70 to 90 kilometres an hour due to a strong Alberta Clipper system.
Travel will be dangerous and likely impossible due to near-zero visibility.
The province saying it’s ready to deploy its fleet of 340 vehicles, for clearing and grading the highways. In Winnipeg, the full complement of plows will start clearing streets with the most traffic first.
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“We’ll plow based on a priority system,” said City of Winnipeg Manager of Streets Maintenance Michael Cantor. “We have Priority 1 which are regional streets, and Priority 2, the connectors and bus routes. So we’ll plow both until they’re done.”
Manitoba Hydro saying power outages are possible – especially where there are trees close to power lines.
“Our emergency preparedness staff will make sure all the local stations are aware”, said Manitoba Hydro Media Relations Officer Peter Chura. “They’ll take some precautions, making sure all the trucks are fueled up and ready to go, making sure the on-call lists are updated.”
If outages are widespread – they’ll work to restore the biggest ones first.
Environment Canada advising people not to go out onto the highways if they can avoid it.
CAA says if you have to, make sure you’re prepared.
“Making sure your emergency kit has things like a flashlight and batteries that actually work, said CAA spokesperson Nadia Matos. “That you have a phone charger with you, in case you need to call for help, and that you have some water and some non-perishable food items.”
For current highway conditions go to Manitoba 511.
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