Power outages across southern Manitoba after storm, high winds: Hydro

Power is out for hundreds in southern Manitoba Friday evening after powerful winds blew through the area, Manitoba Hydro says.

The Crown corporation asked customers to report outages online after large areas throughout the southern part of the province were left without power. The utility wrote on Twitter the outages were caused by high winds.

Manitoba Hydro's online outages map reported more than 11,500 customers without power around 9:30 p.m. Friday, although it's unclear how many of the outages were caused by the storm.

Gimli was among the hardest-hit, Hydro wrote in a tweet. Multiple poles and lines in the community roughly 85 kilometres north of Winnipegwere brought down by the storm.

"Hoping to have most customers restored by early tomorrow morning," Hydro wrote.

Crews were out patrolling lines looking for the cause of another outage in theTeulon, Netley Creek and Winnipeg Beach area, about 35 kilometres away.

Earlier in the day, almost 1,100 customers were left in the dark in Portage la Prairie, about 85 kilometres west of Winnipeg. Hydro wrote later the outage was caused by a downed tree branch that broke a wire.

Power was restored around 3:30 p.m.

Another downed branch caused outages inWinnipeg's Windsor Park and West Portage Avenue areas Friday. Power was restored to those areas around 3:30 p.m. as well, Hydro said.