A Winnipeg man says the damage left by Sunday night’s thunderstorm was “overwhelming” after his vehicle rolled into the front yard of a nearby home.
High winds and heavy rains led to downed power lines and trees, particularly in Winnipeg’s Westwood and River Heights areas, Hydro spokesperson Peter Chura told CBC News on Monday morning.
Sometime during the storm, Darryl Gervais says the wind pushed his Pontiac Vibe, which rolled over into a nearby lawn on Lindsay Street in the River Heights area.
Gervais said he had just finished repairs on the vehicle and left it for his son to use right before the storm hit.
“It looked wonderful, and now it doesn’t,” he told CBC News on Monday. “The windows are smashed, the roof is crumpled, and there’s a trail of parts along the lawn.”
But Gervais is glad no one was hurt, saying if the vehicle had rolled another three metres, it would have hit a house.
“It’s incredible, the force of the wind that can pick up a 3,000 pound vehicle,” he said.
“Yesterday, I was working on it, figuring it would last another two years.”
Preliminary numbers from Environment Canada show winds in the city reached 83 kilometres per hour on Sunday night, while 35 millimetres of rain hit Winnipeg’s airport and The Forks got about 63 millimetres.
‘Pretty scary’
Robyn Canicula, who lives nearby on Lindsay Street, says her family may be staying in a hotel for the next few days after the storm damaged her home just before her children head back to school.
“We can’t go in the backyard because there’s a power line down,” Canicula told CBC News on Monday. “Our trampoline’s gone, our pergola’s up in a tree down the road.”
The storm left destruction all over the neighbourhood, including downed power lines and trees, as well as power lines that were cut in half, she said.
“It feels like we’re in a movie. It’s pretty scary.”
Canicula is thankful the community has come together in light of the damage, she said.
“We’ve had a lot of neighbors reach out,” she said. “Actually, somebody’s been helping my husband put a tarp on our roof and our neighbour’s roof, so it’s been really nice, all the support we’ve been getting from the community.”
About 4,000 customers in Winnipeg were without power on Monday morning, Hydro’s Chura said.
Although crews worked through the night to repair damage and restore power to some, people in areas that suffered severe damage should expect “extended outages today and likely into tomorrow,” Chura said.
“We’ll assess the damage and concentrate on the damage that’s going to restore the most customers to power at once, and then work our way down from there,” he said.
“There’s more severe weather in the forecast, so that could complicate repairs and cause further hazards for people.”
Hydro is urging the public to stay away from downed power lines and to report them to 911, said Chura.
“And remember, a downed tree can also be hiding other hazards, so stay away from those as well.”
The storms began near Moose Jaw, Sask., on Sunday morning and moved eastward over southern Manitoba, resulting in “quite an interesting dinner hour” for Winnipeg, Environment Canada meteorologist Dan Fulton said.
“It was a lot of precipitation, but it pretty much all fell within an hour or two,” he told CBC News on Monday.
Storm damage reported near the community of Elie, which is just west of Winnipeg, points to a potential tornado, Fulton said.
“If it was [a tornado], it would be probably a pretty brief tornado, but I mean, it can’t be ruled out.”
More rain is expected to hit southern Manitoba on Monday night, including Winnipeg, but Fulton said he doesn’t expect “we’ll see anything in Winnipeg other than that rain.”
The only potential complication would be if severe weather develops in the province’s southwest and clips Winnipeg on Monday evening, he said.
Rainfall warning in southwestern Manitoba
A yellow rainfall warning has also been issued for parts of southwestern Manitoba as heavy rain and thunderstorms are expected to bring upwards of 50 millimetres of rain in some places on Monday.
The cities of Brandon and Dauphin, as well as the towns of Swan River, Virden and Melita, are included in the weather agency’s advisory issued shortly after 4 a.m.
Rainfall amounts are expected to be highly variable, but widespread amounts are predicted to be between 30 to 50 millimetres, while local amounts could be higher than 50 millimetres, Environment Canada said.
Water is likely to pool on roads and low-lying areas. Visibility is also likely to suddenly reduce at times.
The weather agency is warning people not to drive through flooded roadways, to allow extra time for travel and to avoid low-lying areas.
