Knocked out: Frigid weather shuts off power throughout Brandon

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This article was published 20/04/2023 (1112 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A spring snowstorm that hit Brandon on Thursday resulted in a series of power outages across the city, including a major interruption in the downtown core that impacted around 400 hydro customers.

The downtown power outage, which encompassed roughly 30 blocks between First and Ninth streets, was caused by a blown hydro transformer behind the 7th Street Health Access Clinic, according to a Manitoba Hydro spokesperson.

When a Sun reporter arrived at the scene around 11:40 a.m., a member of Brandon Fire and Emergency Services was already setting up caution tape along the back alley, with burnt debris from the hydro pole holding the elevated transformer still visible on the ground.

Manitoba Hydro spokesperson Riley McDonald said the power outage was most likely caused by a pole fire, which occurs more often in the spring when dirt combines with moisture on the insulators to create a pathway for electricity to travel from the power line to the wood.

Witnesses said they heard multiple loud “pops” in this same location, pointing to the possibility that several transformers had been affected.

The outage forced some downtown businesses to temporarily close their doors, including the 7th Street Clinic, the YMCA and the Town Centre Mall.

Traffic lights also failed to operate within the affected area, forcing motorists to cautiously navigate the city’s downtown core on roads that were still covered in snow and ice.

As of 5:20 p.m., Manitoba Hydro’s website showed it had resolved the downtown outage.

A snapshot of Hydro’s online outage map Thursday afternoon showed crews were contending with more than 50 outages in the Westman region at one point during the day. This includes the rural areas immediately to the northwest and east of Brandon, which first experienced power outages around 7 to 8 a.m. Thursday in the wake of a Colorado low that brought blowing snow and temperatures that felt like -12 C with the wind chill into this part of the province.

McDonald said these conditions, especially during the spring, can result in “galloping lines,” where a combination of wind and freezing rain can bend power lines into a “wing” shape.

“And after a while, it gets windy enough and that wing shape ends up picking up the line and the lines end up looking like skipping ropes, because they go up and down,” he said.

“And when that happens, [the lines] can stress the equipment, which can bring poles down or they can touch each other and short or they can break things. They’re obviously not meant to be galloping like that.”

The sheer weight of the ice buildup can cause power lines to sag, he said, resulting in hydro poles being pulled to the ground.

Given the number of power outages that Manitoba Hydro crews were dealing with Thursday afternoon, McDonald asked residents to be patient as these issues get resolved, especially since this chilly April weather is expected to continue into the weekend.

“If the weather continues to be bad, our crews use the same roads as everybody else,” he said. “So if the roads are awful, it may take a little bit longer to get there.”

For information on the status of power outages in the province, visit Manitoba Hydro’s website at hydro.mb.ca/outages.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

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