Not only was the entire city slick after freezing rain and still without drinkable tap water, but thousands were also left without power after an outage swept through Winnipeg’s Garden City and River East neighbourhoods Wednesday night.

On the second night of the citywide boil water-advisory, many households were suddenly unable to follow the advisory, as they couldn't use their stoves to heat water.

"It feels like you're going back maybe 40, 50 years where there's no running water," said Doug Palmer.

Doug and Barb Palmer were happy they had preboiled enough water to last them a while before an outrage left their home without power for hours Wednesday night. (CBC)

He and his wife Barb lost power Wednesday night. Luckily, they had pre-boiled water before the outage.

"I was lying in bed and then all of a sudden I saw a flash,” said Barb Palmer. “Then after that the power went off. I went, 'great, no roads, no water, no power."

The pair are among 9,000 hydro customers who were left in the dark for hours on Wednesday night.

Manitoba Hydro officials said a combination of warm weather and freezing rain caused a power surge, which resulted in a hydro pole catching fire near McPhillips Street and Kingsbury Avenue around 6 p.m.

The surge knocked power out for Garden City and River East. While power was restored for around 5,000 customers just after 8 p.m., 4,000 more were alerted they wouldn’t be back on the grid until early Thursday morning.

The Palmers cozied up and made the best of the situation.

"I brought out my woolly blanket and my husband, I brought him out too, and just hanging out with some cheese and crackers and beer," said Barb.

Both Barb and Doug said they're pleased with how the city's handled the boil water-advisory. Mayor Brian Bowman has been taking to social media at all hours to keep the public updated.

The city is confident tests which showed the presence of E. Coli in water samples were false positives. Because Health Canada requires two sets of negative samples 24 hours apart in order to lift advisories, the city has decided to play it safe and wait for more test results coming Thursday, at which point it is hoped Winnipeggers will be free to drink tap water again.

The Palmer's power was eventually restored Wednesday night. They said they were fine with waiting for the next set of test results Thursday.

"I make the best of it. I'm not one to complain. You just make the best of it and it will correct itself," said Doug.