Thunderstorm damages buildings, knocks out power for thousands in southern Manitoba

People in the rural municipality of St. Andrews are cleaning up after a thunderstorm swept through the area Friday, knocking over small buildings and hydro poles. 

According to its website, Manitoba Hydro says over 1,900 people in southern Manitoba were still without power mid-morning Saturday after the thunderstorm caused significant damage to power lines overnight.

The majority of those affected are in the St. Andrews area, where 24 poles were severely damaged and need to be replaced, the utility tweeted. Outages were expected to continue there throughout the day, Hydro said.

At one point Friday night, close to 11,000 customers were without power due to the storm, said Manitoba Hydro spokesperson Anthonie Koop. Earlier Saturday morning, 3,400 were still without power, but that number was down to 1,943 by 2 p.m.

The storm threw trees and branches onto powers lines, in some cases totally knocking hydro poles over, Koop said. 

"It's slowing our response in some areas," he said. 

Environment Canada says some areas of the province saw wind gusts of 100 km/h or greater. The most extreme wind was reported in the Gimli area, which saw wind gusts of 133 km/h — the equivalent of a Category 1 hurricane, said Environment Canada meteorologist Mike McDonald. 

Buildings torn apart 

In less than 10 minutes, Melody Schwabe says the storm destroyed a barn on the St. Andrews pumpkin farm she and her husband run.

The couple were enjoying the warm summer day when the wind and rain started to pick up. 

"It just kind of went crazy," she said.

"At that point, we couldn't even leave the gazebo to get back into the house."

At first, Schwabe said she was in shock. 

"And then the sadness came in, because we run our pumpkin business out of there. The displays, and a lot of the things that we've made, things we've collected — we don't even know where some of the stuff is," she said. 

Megan Ferguson, who lives in the rural municipality of St. Andrews and runs St. Andrews Stables, said her family went to the basement when the wind started to pick up.

When the weather calmed, Ferguson said she saw the storm had flattened the stable's hay shed, and damaged their barn and riding arena. 

"The hay shed looks like a twisted mass of metal," she said. 

Fortunately, all of the stable's horses were fine. But the business, which runs horse-riding lessons, will have to be closed while they make repairs to the barn and riding arena. 

"Right now, we're kind of stuck," she said. 

St. Andrews mayor Joy Sul says crews were working to assess the damage and an estimate on the total costs of those damages wasn't immediately available.

But she expects it will be costly — the damages at deputy mayor John Preun's farm about a kilometre-and-a-half north of Cloverdale Road alone have been estimated at $2 million.

She toured Preun's grain and hog operation Saturday and tells CBC News silos at the farm were left twisted and torn by the storm's heavy winds.

Crews are expected to start clean up efforts Sunday and Sul said the work should take at least a week.

Sul said power had been restored for those affected by outages in the municipality by Saturday night.