Manitoba Hydro says that power has been restored to all customers who suffered blackouts due to the Thanksgiving weekend storm.

Some communities are on temporary power supplied by large diesel generators while work continues to repair power lines.

Hydro crews, as well as crews from other jurisdictions, have replaced more than 4,000 wood poles damaged in the storm. Hydro says that about 950 kilometres of power lines were also repaired. More than 266,000 power outage reports were received by hydro after the storm.

Crews from Sask Power, Hydro One (Ontario) and Minnesota Power began to return home on Wednesday.

“This was a huge challenge for Manitoba Hydro and one we met head-on with the help of neighbouring utilities, partner contractors and the support of thousands of Manitobans,” Manitoba Hydro President & CEO Jay Grewal said.

Hydro is now tasked with cleaning up the broken poles, transformers and overhead wires that they left in place while quickly restoring power to customers.

“A lot of this damaged equipment is along roads and ditches and may be near private property,” Grewal said. “We’re asking our customers to be on the lookout for these materials in all areas of southern Manitoba as it could pose a hazard to anyone riding an off-road vehicle such as an ATV, dirt bike or snowmobile, or to cross country skiers and back-country hikers.”

Clean-up is expected to take until mid November if the weather cooperates.

© News4.ca 2020