Darren Charron is still picking up pieces of his mobile home after a wind storm ripped through a swath of southern Manitoba on Thursday.
“I saw the roof just pick up and peel right off. And then everything shot straight up in the air, and then went into the yard and the field next to me and the other field north of me,” said Charron, who lives near Russell, in southwestern Manitoba.
“It just sounded like a freight train was going through here.”
As the walls began to bow out, he raced to brace them from collapsing.
Then the rain started.
“I guess, mentally, I wasn’t thinking that I should leave. So I stayed and I ended [up] using the squeegee on the floor, because it’s raining inside,” Charron said.
He eventually fell asleep from exhaustion but woke up in a panic a few hours later, “because the whole place started shaking from the wind.”
Things held up, but when he went out Friday morning, the full impact was on display.
“It’s like a bomb went off. There’s stuff everywhere,” he said. “I’m kind of trying to mentally process everything, but I’m trying to stay positive.”
Because it’s an older mobile home from the 1970s, he said no agency would give him insurance on it.
Charron, a contractor, said he can do repairs, but he’s facing big costs for materials and “everything that’s gone.”
Though his home was torn apart, his sense of humour is still intact.
“It’s just a big, open concept now. It’s got a massive skylight,” he said.
Manitoba Hydro crews are dealing with dozens of power outages and people are assessing damages after the severe winds created havoc and reduced visibility in blowing dust.
Hydro spokesperson Peter Chura said about 260 individual outages across the province were affecting some 6,000 customers as of Friday morning.
Minto School, south of Brandon, was closed on Friday because of an outage.
“We’re devoting all available resources to restoring power as safely and quickly as possible, but it will take time given the sheer number of outages that are happening,” said Chura.
With winds still strong, Hydro is expecting more outages throughout the day, he said.
In many cases, outages were caused by trees or tree branches falling on power lines, but occasionally the wind takes the entire pole down, Chura said.
“We do have a lot of reports of wires also sparking at the mast, if the equipment at the top of the pole has been affected by wind,” he said.
“Once you get into the 90 km/h winds, there’s very little above-ground hydro infrastructure that’s going to be immune to that.”
One potential problem is the dirt and dust in the air getting into the equipment on the poles and causing issues, said Chura.
A rare dust storm in southern Manitoba Thursday delivered high winds, flying dirt and reduced visibility. The strongest winds of more than 100 km/h were recorded in the southwest part of the province, including in and around Elgin, Man., where crews fought a grass fire Thursday.
In Brandon, strong winds knocked down the steel frame for the Hi-Way Esso station sign on the Trans-Canada Highway at 18th Street.
“It looks like some of the support bolts either sheared off or were ripped out of their moorings,” Hi-Way Esso manager David McLean said. “So this part of the sign toppled off into a bush, thankfully causing no harm to anyone.”
He’s still assessing the damage, but it’s “looking like the sign itself is at risk of being scrapped,” he said.
McLean said Thursday’s winds were the most intense he’s seen since a tornado hit the south end of Brandon almost 20 years ago.
Environment and Climate Change Canada said Friday that some areas saw winds over 100 km/h on Thursday, and released a list of some the strongest gusts reported at its stations and Manitoba Agriculture weather stations:
- Deloraine — 119 km/h.
- Minto — 113 km/h.
- Brandon — 106 km/h.
- Holland — 102 km/h.
- Glenboro — 102 km/h.
- Shilo — 100 km/h.
- Ninette — 100 km/h.
- Treherne — 100 km/h.
- Austin — 98 km/h.
- Wawanesa — 98 km/h.
- Killarney — 98 km/h.
- Sinclair — 96 km/h.
- Manitou — 96 km/h.
- Brunkild — 93 km/h.
- Virden — 93 km/h.
- Morris — 93 km/h.
- Dugald — 93 km/h.
- Dauphin — 93 km/h.
- Lac du Bonnet — 89 km/h.
- Elie — 89 km/h.
- Winnipeg — 87 km/h.
- Portage la Prairie — 83 km/h.
Environment Canada’s wind warning for Winnipeg had ended as of Friday morning, but remained over a swath of southwestern Manitoba.
Damage to roofs, fences, branches or soft shelters is possible and people should secure loose objects, the weather agency said, also noting high-sided vehicles could be pushed around.
Those winds should diminish late Friday afternoon, the weather agency said.
Meanwhile, the northern part of the province is seeing a return of winter.
A freezing rain warning is in place for the Split Lake and York Landing region, while further north, heavy snow is expected in a winter storm warning.
About 10 to 15 centimetres is likely before the snowfall ends Friday morning
Strong winds blowing dust and topsoil reduced visibility on highways in southern Manitoba as a dust storm moved through the region on May 11, 1984.
