Overland flood warning continues - power out in some areas

The Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure (MTI) Hydrologic Forecast Centre reports that the Red River Floodway has required reactivation to manage water levels in the city of Winnipeg as a major precipitation system continues to impact parts of southern Manitoba.

An overland flood warning continues for southern Manitoba from the Saskatchewan border eastward to Provincial Trunk Highway (PTH) 12 and from the United States border northwards to PTH 1, extending north of PTH 1 between PTH 5 and PTH 16, and north of PTH 1 between Portage la Prairie and Winnipeg.

There is also a wind warning in the area and the rainfall warning that was issued Friday is still in effect. The wind may gust as high as 90 km/h today while another 5 mm of rain and 2 cm of snow may still fall before Sunday comes to a close.

As of 9:30 am Sunday, Manitoba Hydro was reporting more than 800 outages affecting more than 15,000 customers. The bulk of the outages are in the Dauphin area and western Manitoba while smaller outages are affecting numerous communities across the region. So far, there have not been any issues reported in Portage.

Hydro workers will be very busy today

This much precipitation over frozen or saturated ground may lead to localized flooding including basements, underpasses, and the like. Reports have come in that some people in the area are experiencing flooding in their basements.

Localized flooding in low-lying areas is also happening and Environment Canada reminds you to avoid driving through water on roads. Even shallow, fast-moving water across a road can sweep a vehicle or a person away.

The heavy rain is also taking a toll on Winnipeg's infrastructure, with the City of Winnipeg closing some roads due to flooding and collapsing streets.

Several underpasses in the city experienced severe flooding on Saturday evening, prompting the city to close some of them and send out warnings to motorists. The Osborne underpass was among the closures while water pooled and made it difficult for vehicles to get through.