WINNIPEG WINDS WREAK HAVOC

[tropicana]

Gusts wreak havoc on trees, power lines causing outages

WED AUG 18th 2004
Winnipeg, Manitoba


Winnipeggers woke up to the windiest day of the year Wednesday.

It was the windiest day in Winnipeg so far this year with gusts reaching 80 km/h about 9:30 a.m., once the thunderstorms had eased.

Wind as strong as 87 km/h was also reported near Lake Manitoba, said meteorologist Dale Marciski.

Gusts throughout Manitoba could have been even higher, since Environment Canada is limited to the locations of their weather stations, Marciski added.

But the Winnipeg record still stands at 129 km/h, set in February 1965.

The wicked winds wreaked havoc on power lines in the city and surrounding towns.

BROUGHT DOWN TRANSMISSION LINE

A large maple tree in Beausejour brought down a transmission line out of Winnipeg that feeds several communities, including Beausejour, Libau, Cooks Creek and Vivian.

About 1,200 of those Manitoba Hydro customers were without power from 4:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, said spokesman Jim Peters.

Outages in Winnipeg were also widespread.

"Just when you fix one, then you get another phone call," Peters said. "They are ongoing."

North and West Kildonan, Fort Richmond, Fort Garry, Fort Rouge and St. James were among the neighbourhoods temporarily without power.

The outages were short-lived as crews got busy cutting away branches obstructing the lines, Peters said. Additional workers were on standby.

The city works department had answered up to 400 calls from residents reporting fallen branches or trees on cars, houses, roadways or hydro lines by Wednesday afternoon.

Spokesman Bob McDonald said about half of those calls were considered urgent and kept eight crews busy since 5 a.m. They planned to work until dark Wednesday and also extend their hours Thursday.

"On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the worst, we're probably about a 6," said McDonald, citing a May 11 wind storm that resulted in 600 urgent calls.

Phone lines were not affected by the wind storm, said an MTS spokeswoman.

Lake Winnipeg looked more like an ocean during Wednesday's wind storm, said a Gimli fisherman.

"It's ugly," the 47-year-old said. "There was huge breakers -- probably three or four-foot breakers."

-justin-