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It was a record-breaker.

A total of 150,000 Manitoba homes and businesses lost power at some point Friday as a Colorado low slammed into the province – the most ever to lose power in Manitoba in one day, said Manitoba Hydro’s Bruce Owen.

“This is unprecedented, what we’re dealing with, so early,” said Owen. “We haven’t seen that before. Just because of the sheer number of outages, it will take us a while so we can get everybody up.”

The Manitoba Hydro outages map on Saturday as of 7:15 a.m. Google Maps

“We have made progress, at least in Winnipeg,” he said. “At the height of yesterday, we had approximately 27,000 people without power, we’ve now got about 7,500 people without power (inside Winnipeg).”

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However, other areas west of Winnipeg weren’t as lucky, thanks to near-blizzard conditions. “We couldn’t get to the rural areas safely.”

Hydro is working with the province to get graders to plow roads into problem areas to be able to restore power, said Owen. Extra staff and contractors have been called in to help and they will “get going, full steam” at dawn.

Downed trees and branches are still the main problem, he added, meaning crews have to safely clear the tree or branch before lines can be repaired.

Be kind and patient — more than 8,000 people in Portage without power… this is one reason why. This is a 115,000-volt line running between Portage and Brandon. Top of the tower complete broken off and hanging there…

Major repair… #mbstorm pic.twitter.com/AkZ9nezSE3 — Brittany Greenslade (@BrittAtGlobal) October 12, 2019

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The winter storm warning for the city of Winnipeg ended at about 5 a.m., but the warning remained in effect for south central and south western Manitoba.

Environment Canada called for a high of 1 C for Winnipeg, with a chance of flurries in the afternoon.

The reporting station at The Forks recorded 44.5 mm of precipitation over the entire storm.

I wasn't proactive enough at measuring snowfall, so I'm not sure exactly how much fell at my house. If I roughly account for melting and compaction, I'd estimate around 30 cm total. There's currently about 20 cm on my yard. — Scott Kehler (@scottdkehler) October 12, 2019

READ MORE: Plane gets stuck on taxiway at Winnipeg airport

West of Winnipeg, snow will continue, up to 15 cm to add to the 40-60 cm already accumulated, said weather expert Bruce Johnson.

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There is some hope the snow will melt, he added.

“Maybe a week,” he said. “It’s going to be slow because of the white surface… If we get in a position where both the temperature and the dew point are above freezing, then the snow will melt faster.”

City of Winnipeg crews worked through the night to clear streets.

Jason Shaw, left, and Mayor Brian Bowman update media Saturday. Dan Turnbull/Global News

At a press conference just after 10:30 a.m., Mayor Brian Bowman said crews are still cleaning up and asked people to be patient.

He also asked people to check in on their neighbours to make sure everyone was OK.

Bowman says he went home to a tree on his roof, doesn't have power, credits his neighbour helping him. — Elisha Dacey (@elishadacey) October 12, 2019

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Jason Shaw of the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service said the city’s Emergency Operations Centre was still active and are still working to help Manitoba Hydro restore power to about 8,000 customers inside Winnipeg.

While that number is expected to improve over the next 36 hours, said Shaw, it will come down slowly, as they’re now dealing with more difficult fixes.

Says power lines have been ripped off of homes, have ripped service lines. Those fixes will take longer. Priority is still "life safety", says Shaw, says people should call 911 if you see downed power lines. — Elisha Dacey (@elishadacey) October 12, 2019

As for tree cleanup, that will take longer.

Shaw said the city hasn’t seen tree damage like this and they are formulating a plan on how they will deal with cleaning up the thousands of downed trees and branches on streets and property.

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“There will be significant costs” @Mayor_Bowman says about storm clean up. In the coming days the @cityofwinnipeg will release recovery plan info. It will include more info on how the city can help citizens with cleanup, possible compensation – no info as of yet — Brittany Greenslade (@BrittAtGlobal) October 12, 2019

About 2,000 calls have been made about downed trees to 311, and about 50 crews are out cleaning them up.

311 is experiencing high call volumes this morning. If you are making a non-urgent report to 311 you can also reach us through email and twitter. #mbstorm — City of Winnipeg (@cityofwinnipeg) October 12, 2019

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Traffic signals were still down at seven intersections Saturday, said the city.

0:16 Crews work to fix downed light standard in Winnipeg storm Crews work to fix downed light standard in Winnipeg storm

Several highways south and west of Winnipeg were still closed just before 9 a.m. Saturday.

Highway 75 opened at about 9:30 a.m.

Good Morning Manitoba! Widespread road closures continue to affect the regions as the winter storm begins to push out. Gusty winds can still be expected with additional snowfall. See the attached images for road closure maps and a list of active road closures.#mbstorm pic.twitter.com/twOLLfnNF1 — TransCanada Weather (@TransCANWeather) October 12, 2019

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A spokesperson for Manitoba Infrastructure said crews were out overnight, and said they were able to get a plow on Highway 2 at about 4 a.m. where several people were stranded in their vehicles. Crews are working to rescue everyone.

Firefighter union president Alex Forrest said they set their own records, responding to a large number of calls. At one point, he said, they were responding to a new emergency call every single minute.

“This kind of snow, we call basically heart attack snow,” said Forrest, adding there were numerous fires overnight related to downed lines.

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311 is experiencing high call volumes this morning. If you are making a non-urgent report to 311 you can also reach us through email and twitter. #mbstorm — City of Winnipeg (@cityofwinnipeg) October 12, 2019

The Red River was at 12.03 James Avenue datum at 7:15 a.m., up slightly from Friday. The Red River Floodway was opened Wednesday evening.

The current river levels. City of Winnipeg

Several events were cancelled, including Saturday’s Tegan and Sara concert at the Garrick Centre. Because the duo is unable to reschedule, tickets will be refunded, said Ticketmaster.

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Saturday’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers game at Investors Group Field is still on. Kickoff is at 3 p.m. CJOB’s Bob Irving said crews were plowing the field overnight.

The Assiniboine Park zoo, however, remained closed, due to power disruptions. The Park Cafe, English Garden, Nature Playground and Children’s Garden are also closed.

The Farmer’s Market in St. Norbert was on, but was moved inside.

Over at James A. Richardson International Airport, things were returning to normal Saturday.

“Since the start of the storm there has been 14 arrivals and 14 departures cancelled,” said spokesperson Tyler MacAfee. “With the snow stopping and winds slowing, we are moving into clean-up mode at the airport.”

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‘Snowflowers’ in rural Manitoba Saturday morning. Curtis McRae/Submitted

Same view in daylight as well if you want instead. pic.twitter.com/xRzTtSxNN6 — Shauna G (@ShaunaRaeG33) October 12, 2019

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Winnipeg had the rainiest September in 147 years, followed by the largest snowstorm in October in 147 years. 🤔 — Kyle Minogue 🔬🌞 (@kyle_minogue) October 12, 2019

We are snowed in, waiting on a bobcat to did us out in Morden – Shelly pic.twitter.com/IMUc9ldznF — Shelly & Dan Heinrichs (@HeinrichsPhoto) October 12, 2019

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#mbstorm 18 inches at my place so far with more on the way. Horrible for #harvest2019 😭 but looking on the bright side #earlywinterfunwithmyskidsteer — Phil Parker P.Ag CCA (@Philparkeragri) October 12, 2019

#MBStorm update: no power since 1pm yesterday. It’s chilly but the pets and I are embracing the pioneer life. (Pioneers had wine for breakfast, right?) @twistercurl stranded on hwy 240 since 5pm. spent the night in a van with 5 strangers waiting for help. Hopefully soon. — Amy Currie (@AmyCurrie22) October 12, 2019

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Elm trees in our yard have been decimated. #mbstorm pic.twitter.com/MueUdqTaTm — Scott Gillingham (@ScottGillingham) October 12, 2019