A tornado touched down Tuesday night in southern Manitoba as part of a severe storm system that left tens of thousands without power, including in Winnipeg.
Environment Canada confirmed a twister touched down near Ste. Anne. The agency says other reports of tornadoes are being investigated near Grunthal, Morris/Dufrost and Otterburne.
Numerous reports of funnel clouds and other potential tornadoes were also received from the Red River Valley and Parklands area of western Manitoba.
As of 1 p.m. Wednesday, Manitoba Hydro reported that nearly 17,000 in Winnipeg had no power due to the storm system. Across the province as of 1 p.m/, the Crown corporation said there were about 1,000 outages and more than 25,000 customers affected.
The corporation said in a statement that customers should be prepared for outages to stretch into Thursday for some residents due to the “scale and widespread nature of damage.”
The system developed over the Red River Valley and caused “chaos,” Environment Canada meteorologist Dan Fulton said.
Torrential rainfall, with amounts of more than 250 millimetres, was reported in the Stonewall, Man., area by 3 a.m., resulting in major flooding. Another 120 mm was reported in Woodlands, while the Forks weather station in Winnipeg reported 122 mm. More than 50 mm of rain fell in other communities, with numerous reports of flooding.
Grapefruit-sized hail of about 100 mm was seen in Otterburne, with tennis ball size found in Sanford and Winnipeg, Environment Canada reported. Beausejour and New Bothwell also saw golfball-sized hail.
Winds surpassed 100 kilometres per hour in several communities, with Dand and Deloraine reporting gusts of 130 km/h. Winnipeg reported gusts of up to 94 km/h.
Stonewall Mayor Sandra Smith said the community has had “better days” after the amount of rain. She said municipal officials are asking residents to limit unnecessary water use for the next 24 to 48 hours to allow the system to recover.
Get breaking National news
“The last time that we had overland flooding in Stonewall was in 2010 and haven’t seen anything like it since and this is much worse than what happened in 2010,” Smith said.
The mayor added the town’s water treatment plants have had no issue and water remains safe for consumption, but reducing usage will still help.
For Gabby Smith of Stonewall, waking up to a flooded basement and “lake” outside her home it was “not great.”
“A culvert would be nice but, yeah, a lot of damage in there, it’s not a good situation,” Smith said.
She said she called various businesses and officials in Winnipeg and the surrounding community to come pump out water, but “it’s just us right now.”
There were also reports of a tornado in the Ste. Anne and St. Malo area, south of Winnipeg, though Environment Canada has not made an official confirmation. Fulton said there were also “numerous” reports of funnel clouds through an “awful lot” of the Red River Valley.
“I think this is going to be a case of, we probably won’t know the final total for some days. It’s going to have to be a lot of investigation going into trying to figure out exactly what happened out there,” Fulton said.
- Kinew visits flooded Manitoba communities, promises additional help
- Showers and thunderstorm likely just before Canada World Cup match in Toronto
- Tornado leaves trail of ‘severe damage’ after hitting southeast Saskatchewan
- Manitoba Hydro warns of widespread power outages after hail, heavy rain hit province in another massive storm
The City of Winnipeg says it could take time to respond to everyone in need of assistance.
“We know definitely that many residents across the city were impacted by the storm and may be experiencing flooding, whether it’s in homes, businesses, and additionally, damage to property, downed trees, power outages,” said Mike Olczyk, emergency management co-ordinator for the city. “City staff have been responding to calls, reports and issues…. It may take us some time, but city staff are definitely working hard to get to all incidents.”
The city said as of 9 a.m., its 311 line has received storm-related calls, including 137 for downed trees and debris and 122 for raw sewage from sewer backups.
Emergency crews have also seen a number of calls, with 851 received by 911 between 6 p.m. Tuesday and 6 a.m. Wednesday. The calls included 132 related to electrical hazards and 10 calls for possible structure fires.
As southern Manitoba deals with the damage, Environment Canada is warning there’s a risk of severe weather again Wednesday, with watches expected later in the day.
“This one doesn’t look as bad,” Fulton said. “A lot of the energy in the atmosphere has been used up in this outbreak we had overnight, but we’re kind of looking again at Red River Valley.”
Some rainfall is expected for the region Thursday and Friday, but the province says it’s not expected to significantly change conditions across western, central and southern Manitoba. But it cautions eastern and northeastern Manitoba could possibly see 40 to 80 mm of rain across the two days.
Flood warnings have been issued for heavily impacted areas between Winnipeg and Lake Winnipeg due to the current conditions for Stonewall, Petersfield, Inwood, Woodlands and Selkirk. Warnings also remain in effect for the Assiniboine River from Shellmouth Dam to Russell, Shell River near Roblin, Roaring River near Minitonas and Swan River near Minitonas.
Cleanup also continues in western communities like Swan River, which was hit by a storm early Monday morning, resulting in significant flooding.
Environment Canada said that region was able to escape the brunt of Tuesday night’s system, though Fulton said it may have still seen between 25 and 75 mm.
There doesn’t seem to be any mention if this had an effect on their electricity exports to the U.S. I’m guessing no?