Cars abandoned, basements flooded, trees downed as severe storm slashes through Winnipeg

Cars abandoned, basements flooded, trees downed as severe storm slashes through Winnipeg

Almost 20,000 Manitoba Hydro customers in Winnipeg were without power Wednesday morning

Winnipeggers are dealing with a lot of water where water shouldn't be after a fierce thunderstorm pummelled the city with more than 120 millimetres of rain Tuesday night and into Wednesday.

The water inundated basements, made streets impassable and engulfed underpasses where vehicles were abandoned.

North Kildonan resident Michael Koncur heard water running in his basement, and when he went to check, he found water and sewage spewing from his shower drain.

"I got to the bottom of my stairs and I stepped on the carpet and it just [went] squish," he said.

When he looked to the bathroom at the left, "water was literally pumping up from my shower," said Koncur.

A handyman friend he called for advice said sewers were overwhelmed, "and all you can do is wait and hope it stops soon," Koncur said.

Koncur then called his neighbour, who walked to his own basement to check while on the phone.

"And then he was, 'Oh my God, I've got water pumping up through my floor as well,' and then he just hung up on me."

Koncur got in touch with a restoration company at 2 a.m., who said they had been to about 20 calls already.

The flooding came after a major storm system that started south of Emerson in the U.S. and cut north through Manitoba, drenching the Red River Valley and into the Interlake region.

Hailstones ranging in size from nickels to tennis balls were reported across Winnipeg, while in some rural areas, they were the size of baseballs, Environment and Climate Change Canada said.

First-time homeowners Andrew and Rebecca Van Seggelen were also among those left cleaning up, after the backwater valve in their North Kildonan basement failed during the storm Tuesday night. About 15 to 20 centimetres of sewage water came up through a floor drain.

After the hailstorm got "more intense and more intense and more intense," Andrew decided to check on the basement, he said.

"I got to the top of the stairs, and my jaw hit the floor."

Everything they had downstairs — from tools to boxes of personal items, like things from their wedding — was floating around "on brown, black water," said Rebecca.

The city received nearly 1,000 service requests to clear debris, respond to flooding and sewer backups, remove downed trees and repair damaged traffic signals, Mayor Scott Gillingham said in a news release around noon on Wednesday.

Premier Wab Kinew said Wednesday afternoon that Manitoba Public Insurance had taken in 5,000 hail claims already, with the majority in Winnipeg.

Rajveer Dhillon is among those planning to file a claim. He said he was at work when he started hearing the sound of hail on Tuesday. When he went out into the parking lot, his car and about 100 others were damaged.

"It was bad, you know? It was too much," he said, adding he just got the car in November. "I was not happy at all."

Tow truck operator Grant Kabez said he was busy Wednesday, having hauled away seven cars in a span of about six hours, including some that got stranded in flooded areas like underpasses.

"There's not just 10, there's hundreds," Kabez said. "It's been busy, steady, non-stop — and it will be, probably, until we catch up. It could take a week and a half."

Manitoba Hydro, in a news release Wednesday afternoon, said there was extensive damage to power lines, poles and other electrical equipment across southern Manitoba after what it called "one of the worst summer storm events in recent memory."

Many lines were damaged by branches and uprooted trees, Hydro said.

'It's crazy to think about,' says Grosse Isle resident evacuated by boat during flooding caused by storm

Environment Canada said wind gusts were clocked at 130 km/h in the Deloraine area, near the Saskatchewan border, and surpassed 100 km/h in several other places. Brandon hit a top wind of 100 km/h, while Winnipeg clocked a peak of 94 km/h.

It all played havoc on Hydro's infrastructure. Spokesperson Peter Chura says the storm caused 1,000 separate power outages that impacted 32,000 customers in the southern half of the province as of Wednesday morning. Almost 20,000 of those customers were in Winnipeg.

There were still more than 25,000 customers without power, including about 17,000 in Winnipeg, by noon Wednesday.

"There are neighbourhoods in Winnipeg that were significantly affected by outages, and they stretched just all over the place," Chura said, adding there is no timeline for restoration.

Due to the "scale and widespread nature of damage," people should prepare for extended outages, including overnight into Thursday, Hydro said in its news release. In rural areas, flooding and highway closures may delay responses even longer, the corporation said.

People were stranded after heavy rain brought flooding, state of emergency to western Manitoba

'Everyone is safe,' infrastructure minister says after parts of western Manitoba hit by flash floods

The utility needs to complete damage assessments to get a full understanding of the materials, staffing and logistical requirements needed for the restoration work. Those efforts were ongoing as of noon.

One problem is that Hydro sent a number of crews from Winnipeg and Brandon to western Manitoba's Parklands region to help in the aftermath of storms and flooding there earlier in the week.

"I guess if there's a silver lining to this storm situation last night is that some of those Parkland areas, especially around Swan River and Minitonas, were not as heavily affected by new outages," Chura said.

"But it does create a bit more of a challenge, that we've been moving crews around."

Another potential challenge is the ongoing volatile weather, Chura said.

Environment Canada has issued a couple of alerts for the south, including a special weather statement for the southwest, where thunderstorms and funnel clouds are possible, and a severe thunderstorm watch for the southeast, including the Winnipeg area.

There were numerous tornado reports around the Red River Valley and surrounding region, but so far just one is confirmed to have touched down — in the Ste. Anne area, southeast of Winnipeg.

Although no unconfirmed tornadoes were reported in Winnipeg itself, the city was under threat, Environment Canada meteorologist Kyle McAuley said Wednesday morning.

"We were definitely at risk a few times … [due to] thunderstorms that were rotating pretty violently," he said.

"This is by far the closest day, within a few years that I could recall, of a tornado hitting Winnipeg or being near Winnipeg."

Churchill High School in Winnipeg was closed Wednesday due to flooding and major water damage.

Storms bring tornado warnings, hail, heavy rains to much of southern Manitoba, including Winnipeg

Southern Manitoba drenched in wild night of stormy weather, possible tornadoes

Darren Bernhardt has been with CBC Manitoba since 2009 and specializes in offbeat and local history stories. He is the author of two bestselling books: The Lesser Known: A History of Oddities from the Heart of the Continent, and Prairie Oddities: Punkinhead, Peculiar Gravity and More Lesser Known Histories.

With files from Meaghan Ketcheson and Rosanna Hempel