Almost 8,000 without power, traffic blocked on Highway 59, after semi hits ditch, takes out several hydro poles

Updated at 1:36 p.m.: Manitoba Hydro says that Highway 59 north at the floodway is open to traffic in both directions.

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Manitoba Hydro says traffic north of Winnipeg on Highway 59 will be blocked for a few hours, and some customers may remain in the dark longer as crews work to clean up damage from a traffic collision.

The utility company says that reports began coming in of power outages in the East St. Paul and Lockport regions around 10 a.m. on Friday. By 11:10 a.m. they had reports of 7,730 customers without power.

The cause was a semi which left the road on Highway 59 near the floodway. It took out four poles as it went into the ditch, Hydro says in a series of tweets. There is no word at this time on the condition of the semi driver.

Highway 59 is closed to traffic on both sides of the floodway bridge until approximately 1:00 p.m., crews work to clean the lines off the road.

The collision caused a significant outage stretching from the North Perimeter Highway, north up to Lockport. Shortly after 11 a.m. there were nearly 8,000 customers without power. (Manitoba Hydro/Twitter)

Hydro says that crews have restored power to many customers affected in East St. Paul. However, it says that customers in the Lockport region may not have power restored until 3 p.m.