Mayor Brian Bowman says the City of Winnipeg's resources has been "stretched very thin" these last 24 hours.

Alex Forrest of the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg says, "The last 24 hours has been one of the busiest periods we have seen in the last year."

Damage to trees, power lines, and homes have kept municipal and provincial agencies working around the clock in southern Manitoba.

Jason Shaw, Assistant Chief of Emergency Management and Public Information, says, The City of Winnipeg opened its Emergency Operation Centre at 8:30 a.m. 

The Centre is a collaboration of City departments where risk is assessed and incident action plans are put into place.

Bowman says many departments in the City of Winnipeg worked through the night and it was been, "Very difficult and demanding work"

"We had over 100 emergency calls that included fires caused from the storm," says Forrest.

"Downed power lines, downed trees, and many motor vehicle accidents as well as our usual number of EMS calls."

Bowman advised the public on behalf of the City to, "please avoid non-essential travel on our roads at this time."

Shaw says that this morning, "23,000 customers in the City of Winnipeg were without power," and they expect that number to remain or increase with incoming snow and wind.

WFPS doesn't believe the storm has passed. Forrest says, "We are also bracing for the next 24 hours [to be] similar to the last 24 hours."