Fierce winds, dust storm cause chaos in southern Manitoba

Hydro crews ar dealing with dozens of force outages and people ar pick up dust after severe winds on Thursday created havoc across southern Manitoba and reduced visibility in blowing dust.

And Darren Charron is still picking up the pieces of his southwestern Manitoba mobile home.

"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 southeast of Russell.

"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 said there are downed power lines and broken trees in the Westman and Parkland regions, with the largest area of outages in the southwest corner.

In a social media post, Hydro said crews were working to get the power restored but paused at 10 p.m. Because it was no longer safe. They were set to head back out Friday morning.

A downed power line was blamed for igniting a grass fire fire near Elgin, in southwest Manitoba. 

"We're dealing with a heck of a wind here," Municipality of Grassland Reeve Claude Martin said Thursday, as crews from three fire departments worked to put out the flames.

A stretch of Highway 23 near Elgin was closed in both directions on Thursday and didn't reopen until Friday morning.

Minto School, south of Brandon, is closed on Friday because of an outage.

And in Brandon, the wind knocked down the steel frame for the Esso station sign on the Trans-Canada Highway at 18th Street and flipped the KFC sign upside down.

Winnipeg saw a number of smaller power outages dotted throughout the city on Friday. Manitoba Hydro doesn't know when power will be back on.

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:

Environment Canada's wind warning for Winnipeg had ended as of Friday morning, but remained over a swath of southwestern Manitoba.

Dust storm wallops southern Manitoba

Environment Canada says winds should diminish late Friday afternoon.

Damage to roofs, fences, branches or soft shelters is possible and people should secure loose objects, the weather agency said.

High-sided vehicles could also be pushed around by the wind.

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

From the archives: 1984 dust storm in southern Manitoba

Reporter

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