Overview
- Manitoba Hydro completed repairs to a broken transmission span across the Nelson River and began re-energizing the grid in phases to prevent equipment damage.
- Roughly 1,400 residents evacuated to Thompson, Norway House and Winnipeg as hotels filled up, while the Canadian Red Cross delivered more than 500 generators and 600 heaters for households.
- Chief David Monias formally requested Canadian Armed Forces support for evacuations, logistics, temporary shelters and water delivery, citing risks to elders, infants and medically vulnerable residents.
- Community leaders report widespread burst pipes, sewage backups and flooded homes after days without heat, with plumbers working to assess and repair hundreds of suspected failures before evacuees return.
- The outage highlighted long-standing concerns about reliance on a single, roughly 48-year-old river crossing, and leaders renewed calls to reroute transmission lines along the highway for accessibility and resilience.