Update: power restoration could be a while in rural areas

Manitoba Hydro crews are scrambling to restore power Monday morning to customers across southern Manitoba.

As of 4:30 a.m. there are over 200 outages in the province, most caused by the blanket of wet heavy snow that has hit the province.

24 outages in Winnipeg are currently affecting over 4,000 customers. Brandon and the RM of MacDonald also have outages affecting over 1,000 customers each.

Anthonie Koop from Manitoba Hydro says that the wet, heavy snow has been causing lines to stick together. 

"Our crews are doing our best to respond," Koop says, but adds that travel to the affected areas has been difficult due to the snow and reduced visibility. "We're hoping with the daylight the situation will improve."

Koop says that if people are without power they should report the outage to Hydro as soon as possible. "The more information we have from customers, the quicker we can pinpoint where the problem is."

Manitoba Hydro is unable to provide an estimate as to when power will be restored at this time.

Update 12:30 p.m.

Manitoba Hydro has restored power to thousands of customers while working in tough conditions. However, there are still approximately 4,000 customers in Manitoba without power.

The largest outage is in Brandon where over 1,200 people are without power. 

Some customers in Winnipeg are also still affected by outages.

Update 5:00 p.m.

Power has been restored in Brandon. However, Hydro says that many rural customers will continue to experience outages. 

"In many rural areas, access has been difficult (some roads were closed until a couple hours ago), and even with roads open, access to some equipment has been challenging," the utility company said on Twitter.

"Due to these access concerns, we anticipate there will be several extended outages. We appreciate your patience and we're doing the best we can."