Manitoba Hydro says this winter storm has turned into a major event for the utility.

Spokesperson Scott Powell says as of 10:00 Friday morning, 37,000 customers were still without power, 26,000 of them in Winnipeg. He adds they have already restored power to thousands of others.

Powell says hydro is bringing in staff from unaffected areas to assist local crews but poor road conditions are making that complicated. Furthermore, the poor road conditions are slowing response times and he asks customers to be patient as hydro is doing all it can to restore service as soon as possible.

The utility is also reminding everyone to stay away from downed power lines. “If you see a line on the ground, just assume it is still live. Stay away from it, keep others away from it and call 911 immediately,” said Powell. “Also, notify our Contact Centre at 1-888-MBHYDRO or 204-360-5900 so we can get a crew there as quickly as possible to make the area safe. It may take some time to get through, but public safety is our first priority.”

In an effort to streamline calls and try and minimize wait times, Hydro is asking customers to only call the Contact Centre in the event of a downed line or other emergency. Powell reminds customers they can report power outages online from their smart phones at https://www.hydro.mb.ca/outages/