An emergency alert has been issued warning drivers to stay off southern Manitoba highways amid a blizzard that caused numerous highway closures and countless collisions.
The north and south Perimeter Highway was closed on Friday morning due to dangerous driving conditions, resulting in several crashes and pileups.
Truck driver Jaskaran Singh was on route to Calgary, Alta. Thursday when he stopped in Winnipeg for the night. He woke up the next morning to whiteout conditions.
“The wind is crazy. My trailer is empty. Now I’m stuck here overnight,” he told CTV News Winnipeg at a truck stop in Headingley, Man.
The blizzard care of an Alberta Clipper touched down early Friday in parts of Manitoba, bringing with it 90 km/h northerly winds and blowing snow, triggering a cascade of weather advisories from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), which ended Friday afternoon.
Jaskaran hopes to be back on the road tonight.
“Let’s hope the weather is going to be okay soon.”
According to a social media post from the Winnipeg Police Service, the south Perimeter, (Portage Avenue to Fermor Avenue), is closed. It notes that the RCMP also closed the north Perimeter and Highway 75. A number of other southern Manitoba highways were also closed Friday, citing issues with visibility from blowing snow.
The Winnipeg Police Service is currently helping RCMP with traffic closures on the south Perimeter, noting there are dozens of vehicles involved in collisions and a serious pile-up.
An emergency alert was also issued Friday afternoon, urging drivers to avoid southern Manitoba highways.
Among the communities responding to crashes and pileups was the RM of La Broquerie, where 14 cars were involved in a pileup on Highway 52 near Steinbach Friday morning.
Jean-Claude Normandeau, fire chief in La Broquerie, said he had never seen a crash of this magnitude in his career before.
“It’s just crazy and mindboggling,” he said. “It just proves that it doesn’t matter how much you train, you can never train for the unknowns.”
Normandeau said at the time of the crash, there was no visibility, and a vehicle was rear-ended, leading to the pileup.
Several minor injuries were reported, Normandeau said, and the scene has since been cleared.
He said people should stay home and not drive until the weather improves.
Shared Health said Health Sciences Centre and Southern Health-Sante Sude issued Code Orange alerts Friday morning. HSC’s was in response to several multi-vehicle collisions that happened outside the city, while the other was triggered by an influx of patients at Ste. Anne Hospital and Bethesda Regional Health Centre from a multi-vehicle collision near Ste. Anne.
“The number of injured and the severity of their injuries is still being determined, however we can confirm that a number of patients have been or are in the process of being transported to various hospitals and health centres across the province,” Shared Health told CTV News Winnipeg in a statement.
A government spokesperson said the province is strongly advising against any highway travel, particularly in southern Manitoba, due to low visibility and high winds. The province has several reports of multi-vehicle collisions due to people still driving in unsafe conditions.
Meanwhile, Manitoba Hydro posted on X that crews were responding to several weather-related outages, but road conditions were creating delays in restoring power.
ECCC forecasts the blizzard will exit southern Manitoba later Friday afternoon or early evening. Travel is expected to remain hazardous for much of the day.
The City of Winnipeg will begin plowing priority streets and sidewalks starting at 7 p.m.
