Hundreds of millions of dollars are being incurred as the cost to restore Manitoba's power and clean up debris grows.

"As this storm had an unprecedented impact on Manitoba’s power grid, it’s not surprising the costs will exceed $100 million," says Bruce Owen of Manitoba Hydro.

The storm's impact on Manitoba's power grid required Manitoba Hydro to mobilize a workforce of 1,000 people plus many more support staff.

The storm on Thanksgiving weekend crumpled over 100 transmission structures and broke over 3,600 wooden utility poles in the Dauphin, Interlake and Portage la Prairie areas, taking down almost 800 kilometres of power lines.

Owen says, "Mobilizing a workforce of 1,000 staff in the field and another 300 to 400 in offices and warehouses across Manitoba, and ensuring field staff have accommodations, food, supplies, clothes, transportation and materials is an enormous undertaking, on par with any military operation."

The City of Winnipeg has not and will not be able to calculate their costs of the clean up for the foreseeable future.

David Driedger, of the City of Winnipeg, says, "The City continues to calculate costs related to the storm and cleanup operations, and is expected to be in the millions of dollars.

"Costs were, and continue to be, incurred by various civic departments."

As of 9 a.m. on Monday, October 21:

  • 2,826 hydro poles have been replaced
  • 617 kilometres of hydro line has been put up
  • 965 of the 1,729 damaged poles have been replaced in the Interlake