WINNIPEG - Some 9,000 Manitoba homes and businesses are still without power after last week's heavy snow storm — down 4,000 from yesterday.
Manitoba Hydro says it's hoping to have electricity for everyone restored by early next week, but some terrain in rural areas is challenging.
Spokesman Bruce Owen says fields are saturated and ditches are filled with water, making it more difficult to get to poles and transmission towers that need attention.
Owen says the Crown utility is using tracked vehicles, which operate like tanks, to get to places ordinary wheels cannot access.
Manitoba Hydro has also set up four camps for workers where they can sleep, eat and rest between their 16-hour shifts.
The Canadian Red Cross says roughly 6,000 residents of First Nations communities remain evacuated, with the vast majority staying with friends and family or in hotels.
