It's an especially cold start to the day for thousands of people in the Steinbach area as Manitoba Hydro deals with a large power outage.

Manitoba Hydro says nearly 5,500 customers are currently without power.

The utility company says that an outage to a sub-transmission line that feeds multiple stations is to blame.

Hydro says that as of 5:45 a.m. crews were working to restore power.

It says it does not know how long the outage will last.